HASAN S.

ALAMIA II HAWKING

Making agriculture a viable career for millennials

On November 11, 2016, Rappler awarded Cherrie Atilano with the Earth Mover Award for her
efforts in making farming a 'cool, smart, and humane' profession

Published 1:16 PM, June 23, 2017

Updated 1:16 PM, June 23, 2017

TEACHING AGRICULTURE. Students from Marinduque work on their school garden in one of
AGREA's projects 'The Garden Classroom' that helps teach kids the value of growing their own
food, eating healthy, camaraderie, love for the environment. Photo courtesy of AGREA

MANILA, Philippines — One of the greatest ironies of our time is that our food producers –
farmers and fisherfolks – are among the hungriest and poorest.

Farming and fishing are noble professions, but they are being neglected. So it’s no surprise that
the average Filipino farmer is 57 years old, with younger generations opting out of farming in
pursuit of a "better life" elsewhere.

This is why Cherrie Atilano is pushing to make farming "cool, smart, and humane."

Growing up in a farm in Negros Occidental, Atilano started her advocacy in agriculture when she
was 12 years old.

"It pains me everytime I talk to our farmers. We ask them if they have bank account or if they
have a notion of having a bank account. They think it's just for rich people. They don't have any
concept of saving," Atilano said.

Farming has been a neglected sector by the government for decades, Atilano added. There is
much work to be done in empowering farmers and farming communities.

"Agriculture was the Philippines' backbone before. But along the way, it was somehow
forgotten. I always say that agriculture in the Philippines is politicized. We measure the yield of
crops but we don’t really measure the impact on the farmer’s lives," she said.

Atilano added: "The government should really focus on building this backbone. Because
agriculture is a huge industry. When you plant rice, it is a plant industry. You know, when you
plant coffee, it can be a coffee industry. When you plant cotton, of course, our clothing comes
from cotton. You know when you plant a cacao, it will be a chocolate industry."
Agriculture for millennials

Atilano started AGREA (‘agriculture’ and ‘Gaea’), a social enterprise that hopes to empower
farmers and get more people to start farming. Its goal is three-fold: to eradicate poverty for
farming and fishing families, to mitigate the effects of climate change, and to establish food
security in the Philippines.

"We believe in Agrea that everything we do is about cultivation of human beings. That’s why it
took us a while to do a lot of community organizing with our farming communities...We do
sustainable agricultural practices so the farmers can be resilient even if there are typhoons or
floods that may come. But more than that our goal for them is to really be financially literate,"
she said.

Currently, their efforts are focused in Marinduque — one of the poorest provinces in the entire
archipelago due to decades of mining. By implementing a “one-island economy” model,
AGREA hopes to ensure food security for and mitigate environmental and social impacts on the
community.

If the model becomes successful, Atilano plans to replicate it in other parts of the country.

The work is not easy but Atilano says it's worth it.

"I think, going out of your comfort zone is the most comfortable thing in life. It’s the most
comfortable zone in life that you can experience,” Atilano said.

EARTH MOVER. Cherrie Atilano receives her award during the Move Awards 2016 night at the
Ayala Museum. Photo from Rappler

She added that millennials need to commit to their passions and advocacies in order to make
them work.

"Many young people, they’re so passionate in things. But when it demands more sacrifices, it
demands more going out of your comfort zone, it’s so easy for them to give up," she said.

Atilano added: "The world needs sustainable nurturers. Nurturers that could endure the problems
in our society. That could always see opportunities out of these problems. And for me, for those
millennials, it is really more on investing on, sacrificing for what you love to do."

This is why Atilano was named Earth Mover for the Move Awards 2016. Her work shows that
farming can be a friendly, sustainable, and lucrative profession. – Rappler.com
Outlining

Thesis statement: Farming should be brought back to the youth as the backbone of the country’s
economy.

Supporting details:

Point 1: Agriculture and fishing is no longer somehow important to most youth of today.
Farming and fishing are noble professions, but they are being neglected. So it’s no surprise that
the average Filipino farmer is 57 years old, with younger generations opting out of farming in
pursuit of a "better life" elsewhere.

Point 2: Agriculture should be brought back as the backbone of the country’s economy.
The government should really focus on building this backbone. Because agriculture is a huge
industry.
Point 3: Millenials of today will be the key to the renaissance of Agriculture in the
Philippines. The world needs sustainable nurturers. Nurturers that could endure the problems in
our society. That could always see opportunities out of these problems. Millenials are the perfect
epitome to this.

Summary:
Agriculture and Fishing was the main source of economy in the Philippines. But now,
everything has changed. Ironically, Farmers, who are the source of income in the country since
they produce great number of products, are unfortunately the poorest. Moreover, less people,
especially the youth, are interested in agriculture. Thus, they look for something else as an
occupation for a “better life”. As a solution to this, Cherrie Atilano started AGREA, a social
enterprise that hopes to empower farmers and get more people to start farming. Its goal is three-
fold: to eradicate poverty for farming and fishing families, to mitigate the effects of climate
change, and to establish food security in the Philippines. Now, the program is focused on youth
where in schools, they started implementing the program.

Evaluation:

The purpose of the news is to let the readers know about the program being implemented
on youth for the betterment of the society with regards to the country’s agriculture and fishery.
The message was well executed for it started off with an introduction about the struggle of
today’s farmers and fishermen. However, the subject on youth wasn’t elaborated enough. It was
focused more on a general setting. Nonetheless, there are some interesting claims in the article
such as the irony of farmers and fishermen as the ones hungriest and poorest in the country,
agriculture should be rebirthed back as the country’s backbone of economy and millenials should
be the ones targeted first by this program. The article is certainly credible because it used
different ways to cite the people interviewed and published with a list of sources. The statement,
’with younger generations opting out of farming in pursuit of a "better life" elsewhere” is a
fallacy for it is hastily generalizing for not all of the young generations are neglecting
agriculture. Thus, no statistics was shown in the news article to support the claim. Overall, the
article is pretty much effective for it showed pictures (in the news website), cited the person or
people interviewed and timely.

Personally, I’m not in favor of the program. I, a science high school student, is personally
under the same program where we have a small farm in front of our school building. Students are
the ones uprooting, planting, and doing the farming in the said area. I do not like the experience I
am having with the said program. We are in a science high school yet we are farming. I was
shocked to have a requirement such as it. Plus the pile of requirements we have, we really find it
hard to take care of our crops. Though, we know the benefits we can get from it, we just do not
like how things are being done in the program.