One hundred seventy-five senior high school students from the Colegio de San Juan de Letran Calamba, Philippines, accompanied by 10 faculty members, participated in the first run of the Sowing Seeds: Cultivating Youth's Future in Agriculture, a career orientation organized by the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) through its Partnerships Unit (PU) as part of the Center's Young Forces for Agricultural Innovation (#Y4AGRI) program on 2 May 2024.
Sowing Seeds aims to step up efforts in promoting agriculture not only to Filipinos but also to other Southeast Asian youth. It also seeks to spotlight its potential as a promising career path by showcasing the opportunities awaiting those who pursue higher education in agriculture and related disciplines.
In his opening message, SEARCA Center Director Dr. Glenn Gregorio highlighted agriculture's interdisciplinary nature and how it intertwines with diverse fields, such as engineering, law, business, and communications. He noted its significance in shaping economies, innovations, and society.
Dr. Rico Ancog, one of the Outstanding Young Scientists (OYS) of 2019 and The Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) in 2022, and a professor and the dean of the School of Environmental Science and Management, University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), served as the event resource person and underscored the role of agriculture in ensuring food security and its contribution to national economic growth. He also provided a glimpse of the status of the Philippine agriculture sector, including its ironies, such as the country heavily depending on agriculture, yet the sector facing substantial job losses. Dr. Ancog emphasized that one contributing factor is the youth's disinterest in agriculture.
"The youth is moving from rural to urban cities for more lucrative opportunities. We want you to realize what you, as a youth, can do about agriculture because your role and contribution to the sector is valuable," he remarked.
He explained that young people perceive agriculture as outdated, labor-intensive, and financially unrewarding. To change this mindset, he accentuated that they should know what's in it for them.
"Agriculture offers a wide range of career paths beyond traditional farming, including research, technology, marketing, and international development," he shared.
In addition to the lecture discussion, the students were given a tour of the SEARCA Hub for Agriculture and Rural Innovation for the Next Generation (SHARING) and a robotics demonstration at the SHARING Café. They were also treated to a rolling tour of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), the UPLB National Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (BIOTECH), Milka Krem, and the UPLB Accelerating Growth through One Research and Extension in Action (AGORA) Techno Hub and One-Stop Shop.
Expanding its reach beyond the Philippines, the Sowing Seeds orientation will also run across other Southeast Asian countries, with Malaysia being the first stop.
