Youth participation in agriculture through agroecological practices
Project title
Rights-based and Agroecological Initiatives for Sustainability and Equity in Peasant Communities (RAISE)
Location
Philippines
Dates
1 January 2022 – 31 December 2025
Funding
Implemented by SEARICE with support from DKA Austria
Objectives
The RAISE Project aims to highlight the value of youth participation in agriculture, particularly through the application of agroecological practices.
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Develop the capacity of community facilitators in children and youth engagement.
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Build the awareness and capacity of children and the youth to advocate for their right to food and for agroecology.
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Develop learning materials.
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Conduct learning events, including youth camps, arts events, study tours and learning exchanges, among others.
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Develop in a participatory manner children- and youth-led advocacy campaig.ns
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Work with schools on integrating agroecology and the right to food in school curricula.
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Lobby with the Agriculture Department at the national level for the institutionalization of agroecology in schools.
Details of Project Outcomes and Progress of the Project
Outcome 1: Capacity development of select facilitators of children and youth engagement in target communities.
The Project is expected to result in the capacity development of select facilitators of children and youth engagement in target communities. In 2022 until the first quarter of 2023, SEARICE organized a series of workshops for the youth to raise their awareness on the rights of peasants and to help them understand and appreciate agroecology. The capacity-building workshops for the youth, titled “Creative Advocates for Farmers’ Rights,” were conducted as a series in the three island groups of the Philippines. SEARICE worked with the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) to facilitate the youth workshop.
To help sustain the momentum built by the capacity-building workshops, SEARICE created a core group and conducted a series of online discussions. A Facebook Page was created to provide a common space where SEARICE and the youth partners could exchange information, share relevant materials which could either help improve their knowledge and understanding of key relevant issues or to motivate each other.
A number of online meetings were held from March to June 2023 to discuss how the youth could advance the advocacy on agroecology and farmers’ rights.
In the course of these engagements, it was decided to identify leaders from each of the regions who could provide more time and commitment to coordinating with various youth groups within their respective regions.
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Participants to the “Creative Advocates for Farmers’ Rights”, a capacity-building workshop for the youth.
Outcome 2: Integration of agroecology in school curricula.
SEARICE is to institutionalize a food security program in schools to address the problem through the promotion and implementation of sustainable food systems, organic diversified agriculture technologies, including agroecology with emphasis on the conservation and development of agricultural biodiversity, and to advocate for policies that recognize, support, strengthen and institutionalize community initiatives on sustainable food production systems. SEARICE believes that the contextualization of teaching and learning can strengthen the links between the learning of agriculture in the school, home, and community as the schools are the centers of education, discipline, and influence.
SEARICE, the Central Philippines State University (CPSU), and the Schools Division Office of the Department of Education in Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental, collaborated on a project to enhance the capacities of teachers to instruct students in agroecology and the right to food. Through a project launched during the signing of a Memorandum of Partnership (MOP) between SEARICE executive director, Normita Ignacio, and CPSU president, Dr. Aladino Moraca, on October 21, 2022, the partner institutions would integrate the teaching of agroecology, as well as take steps towards developing a Teachers’ Guidebook that will be used by SEARICE partner schools all over Southeast Asia.
Front row: SEARICE executive director, Normita Ignacio, and CPSU president, Dr. Aladino Moraca
Standing: Jolly Gariando, Public Schools Division Supervisor; Olive Seruelo, SEARICE Coordinator for Visayas; Dr. Maryvic Pedrosa, Director, Product Enterprise Division Office, CPSU; and Junry Esparar, Chief, Curriculum Implementation Division, Department of Education
​The project consisted of three separate workshops held in 2023 to develop lesson exemplars, which were enhanced with inputs from SEARICE and other experts. The project participants—which included teachers, writers, authors and officials in charge of curriculum integration in 11 Divisions, CPSU, and MDM-Sagay College in Negros Occidental, also got the chance to observe CPSU’s vermicast production and to go on field visits to crop production sites. The MOP aims to replicate this experiential learning in the classrooms.
A final writeshop was held on February 4 to 6 to produce a manual of Lesson Exemplars of Farm Schools, Science, Technology and Livelihood Education and Technical Vocational and Livelihood Education of Grades 7 and 8. The Teachers’ Guidebook is expected to be published in the first quarter of 2024.
SEARICE is set to publish a manual entitled “A Compendium of Lesson Exemplars Integrating Agroecology Concepts,” together with the CPSU and the Schools Division Office of Kabankalan City in cooperation with the 10 Schools Division Offices namely: San Carlos City, Sagay City, Cadiz City, Victorias City, Bacolod City, Negros Occidental, Bago City, La Carlota City, Kabankalan City, and Sipalay City.
One of three workshops held in 2023 to develop lesson exemplars for the curriculum on agroecology and right to food. The workshop participants included teachers, writers, authors and officials in charge of curriculum integration in 11 Divisions, CPSU, and MDM-Sagay College in Negros Occidental.
​Outcome 3: Mobilizing the youth to support the Magna Carta of Young Farmers.
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The Negrosanon Agri Youth Congress was held on 27 July 2024 to discuss the empowerment of young farmers, rural youth, and youth in agriculture to become effective advocates for change in their communities.
Organized by Pamatan-on nga Mangunguma sang Negros Alliance (PAMANA), the meeting of Negros youth leaders involved in agriculture called, among others, for the enactment of the Magna Carta of Young Farmers.
The Magna Carta of Young Farmers recognizes the invaluable contributions of young men and women farmers to family farming and the food value chain, and their strategic role, by providing a policy framework that will afford them a sense of pride so that they will opt to stay in the farms, make a decent living from agriculture and secure the food sufficiency of the country. Also, it is designed to strengthen existing and state-of-the-art farming activities, and provide incentives that will encourage the young agricultural graduates to venture into agriculture and become "agri-preneurs."
SEARICE supports the call of PAMANA and youth partners for the passage of the bill in particular, and for the empowerment of young farmers, in general.
Participants to the Negrosanon Agri Youth Congress