Making entrepreneurs out of agriculture graduates

LOS BANOS, Laguna – It’s a disturbing trend but not exactly surprising. Years back, the country’s agriculture colleges and state universities in the countryside had a healthy number of agriculture students. That’s understandable because the economy was then largely-agriculture based. Later, the country’s schools produced professionals such as lawyers, doctors, nurses, accountants, engineers and more recently, IT graduates. And yet while the country was moving into industrialization, the economy was still largely fueled by the agri sector.

"Sadly however, the young are veering away from agriculture and fishery courses because the handful who graduate find themselves in a bind. Aside from the rather low-paying jobs, graduates eventually abandon their discipline because they could not find enough opportunities and most times, don’t have start-up money to put up their own agri-based businesses," says Senator Ramon Magsaysay Jr.

Magsaysay, who is also the chairman of the Senate committee on agriculture notes that aside from the limited employment gains, the education system is still focused on churning out employees rather than employers. Thus, these hopeful graduates troop to the cities, dreaming that they would land jobs that will secure their future and often to their disappointment, have to content with menial jobs. The others are lucky enough to get job offers from abroad that promise the proverbial greener pasture.

The movement of young rural labor to urban centers, and eventually to foreign shores, has robbed farms of a labor force required to produce the country’s food requirements. Their parent-farmers stay behind to till the land. The average age of farmers is 67 years who refuse to learn modern technology and still practice dated farming methods.

As a result, farm productivity has continually deteriorated, the country has to rely more on imports and because farming is no longer a profitable proposition, incomes are not enough to feed a family

"Those who do graduate in agriculture and fisheries are often too reluctant to cast their lot in agriculture, because let’s face it, small and medium entrepreneurs remain poor and only a few grow into something really big, there are but a handful of success stories in this sector," says Magsaysay.

The senator however, believes the situation could still be improved, if not reversed. Magsaysay recently launched the P50-million Young Farmers Program (YFP) whose objective is to convince and encourage young agriculture and fisheries graduates to go into agribusiness and become entrepreneurs that can compete in both the local and foreign markets.

"Why insist on convincing the young people in the countryside to take up agriculture and agribusiness? Because the youth has the greater capacity to learn, they are more open to new ideas, they are willing to adopt new systems and with their fresh idealism, they have this sense of heightened urgency to initiate changes or reforms required to improve their lot," explains Magsaysay.

"We also have to work on the premise that food security is part of national security. We cannot be depending on imports to feed our people because if something happens to our foreign suppliers, we have a situation in which either prices go up at rates that we cannot afford, or if we can afford them, there is no supply to be shipped into the country," adds Magsaysay.

The YFP has two components, namely: The Young Farmers Entrepreneurship Program (YFE)and the Young Farmer Volunteers (YFV).

The YFE focuses on the selection of agri-based proposals from young graduates for possible funding. The total project cost will consist of 15 percent equity, 25 percent grant and 60 percent loan. The total amount of loan per proponent is about P50,000. Magsaysay says that a cluster or a group of young graduates/farmers may opt for a higher amount of loan depending on the cost of infrastructure and equipment needed.

On the other hand, participants to the YFV will be chosen from various schools through job fairs that will serve as agents or coordinators in each region. Those selected will undergo classroom and field trainings for two months and then will be deployed to the regions for six months. They will coordinate with the various schools, colleges and universities in the region to identify the next batch of young graduates as entrepreneurs and volunteers. After six months, these volunteers will be transformed into young farmer entrepreneurs wherein funding for their chosen project will be provided.

The Department of Agriculture and its attached agency, the Agricultural Training Institute will provide trainors and training designs both for the YFE and YFV.

To ensure that money for the program will not go to waste or just be later written off as bad debts, project proponents will have to comply with certain requirements such as the submission of marketing plans, including projected financial statements.

"Of course the approval of the proposal will be based on the viability and sustainability of the project, along with the marketability of the produce which will have to be supported by signed purchase orders or marketing contract," says Magsaysay.

The process does not end there, according to Magsaysay. When the project starts or becomes operational, the YFE will submit a quarterly status report of implementation of the project. This will include the volume of production and sales, fund status, disbursement, cash flow and income statement.

The same will be required under the YFV – a monthly status report of extension and monitoring activities done in the region which will include the status of the project.

The first year of the program is targeting at least three projects per region.

Despite the usual skepticism to government-led programs such as this one, Magsaysay is optimistic the program will be able to achieve its goals.

" The ultimate goal here is to generate more jobs in the countryside and distribute incomes to farmer and fisherfolk families.

In the process, we will be developing graduates who will have a different mindset. That there is money to be made in agriculture, using the right technology, that with a bit of financial and technical assistance, agriculture can still be profitable. We want to develop a new breed of agriculture graduates who want to be entrepreneurs and not just employees. And then we could stop the brain drain from recurring."