ZAMBOANGA CITY—In response to an earlier call by the Department of Agriculture, many farmer-parents in Zamboanga Peninsula enrolled their children in agriculture and related courses this school year, a DA officer said.
City agriculture coordinator farmer Raul Bucoy expressed elation over the farmers’ action, saying the Philippines direly needed agriculturists to help boost rice and corn production.
These students born to farming families can later effectively and efficiently implement what they learned in school in their family farms after their parents shall have become too old to perform farm work, Bucoy noted.
The Department of Science and Technology provides scholarships for such students and the Zamboanga City-based Western Mindanao State University has its College of Agriculture at Barangay San Ramon.
In Region 9, the Zamboanga del Norte National Agriculture College in Tampilisan town, the Siocon National Agricultural College and the Katipunan National Agricultural College; the Zamboanga de Sur National Agricultural College in Dumingag, the Josefina Cerilles Memorial State College in San Miguel and Basilan State University also offer Bachelor of Science in Agriculture, BS in Agronomy, and BS in Horticulture courses.
In previous school years, very few farmers’ children chose and farming courses. Mostpreferred to take up Commerce, Nursing and Business Administration only to end up as sales persons of business establishments with measly salaries or jobless.
The DA official said that when school year 2016-2017 opened in June, even freshmen students from non-farmer families enrolled in agriculture and related courses after realizing that the land can yield riches if properly and scientifically developed.