VALENCIA, Sean Phillipp C.

ENGL 11 QQ

Filipino Farmers Need You!

The Philippines is an agricultural archipelago, having around a total of 9.67 million hectars or
roughly thirty (30) percent of its land area being agricultural by 2015 (Elauria, 2015), so there
should be focus on the development of this aspect of the country. However, through the recent
years our agricultural sector has not been doing so well. In a research by Brown, Ebora, and
Decena (2018) on the current state of Philippine agriculture, they show that agricultural sector’s
input for the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), has been decreasing in the recent years. It
is stated that the sector provided 13 to 14 percent of the GDP back in the years 1998 to 2009, but
its contribution gradually decreased to 10 percent by 2017. In an interview with Keb Cuevas
(2019), an agricultural specialist and social media analyst, he states that our agricultural sector is
not competitive. He stated that countries like Vietnam and Thailand had only been learning about
rice production some years ago, yet they now lead the rice industry in the world. Cuevas also
mentions that what’s worse is that we are one of the largest importers of rice. To Filipinos, rice is
a staple food and is essentially now a commodity. However, recent reports say that in 2019, the
Philippines is the second largest rice importer, importing about 2.6 million metric tons of rice
(Simeon, 2019). We are dependent, when we need to be more self-sufficient.

There are several factors that add to this agriculture problem. Despite having a large area of
arable lands, Filipino farmers are among the poorest citizens in the country (Santiago & Roxas,
2015), and ironically, they are the ones who are hungry and cannot purchase rice. They lack the
support necessary to be able to function properly for the economy. In an article by Cosico through
the Philippine Daily Inquirer (2017), it is stated that Vietnamese farmers get $236-per-ton subsidy
from the Vietnam Food Association, and Thai farmers get $450-per-ton support. The Philippines,
however, only get $180-per-ton government support, although our expenses are greater than that
of the aforementioned countries. Furthermore, farmers in the Philippines are also having difficulty
or unable to gain ownership of land, not just because of poverty, but also due to several issues
on agrarian reforms and land distribution (Elauria, 2015). According to Cuevas (2019), “in terms
of public policy, the agrarian reform which led to unconditional transfer of lands to farmers caused
the transformation of agricultural land into real estate”.
With these mentioned, the agricultural sector has become incompetent, and viewed as
unattractive to the youth (Basnet, 2015) or an unattractive sector in general (Kritz, 2015). The
employment rate in agriculture has also been declining over time. It is reported that the average
age of the Filipino farmer in 2013 is 57, and most of them have only received primary level
education. So, it is estimated that in about 10 years or less, the country would have a shortage of
farmers. Their children, and other potential farmers also go into different careers, mostly in urban
areas or overseas (Elauria, 2015), and perhaps there should be more schools in our country that
have agriculture in its curricula (Basnet, 2015). Even though there are some that do include
agriculture, the previously mentioned problems discourage the youth to pursue a career in the
sector, making them see it as unprofitable and too difficult. Although there are many graduates of
agriculture; UP Los Baños accepts 330 students in their College of Agriculture, and there are over
46,000 agriculture students from other universities; most of them do not become farmers, but
instead go to other sectors, such as service, business, and industry (Elauria, 2015). De Guzman
(2018) summarizes these issues in her article stating, “Agricultural land is being developed into
industrial areas, shopping malls and subdivisions. Farmers are growing old and their children
have shifted into other careers. The agriculture industry has not progressed in ages. Many of our
agricultural schools are producing office-oriented workers who would much rather do paper work
than help improve the agricultural sector of the country. Not to mention the many horror stories of
corruption at the Department of Agriculture.”

So what can be done? It is truly difficult to solve the agricultural problem as there are several
causes that are quite broad to begin with. However, given that it is difficult to solve the problem
by attacking its very roots--poverty, issues on land reform, and government corruption, there are
still little things that people can do to aid the agriculture sector, and encourage more people to go
into it. Perhaps, we can ask the question, “how do we encourage the youth to farm?”. Since one
of the pertaining issues is that farmers have a lowly image and identity to the Filipinos, the view
or stigma that farming is equated to poverty must be stopped. One of the possible solutions is to
utilize the technology at our disposal. Cuevas (2019) states that there are several ways that can
integrate technology into agriculture, and help the sector. For him, one of the problems is the lack
of focus of technological transformation in the field of agriculture, and we can still move forward,
and catch up to the competition if we leapfrog towards digital technology. Various digital and
media platforms can be used to effectively develop the livelihood of Filipino farmers.
The right use of the media can aid the Philippines’ agricultural sector. When we talk about media,
it is not just television or news, but information dissemination in general. Nonetheless, streaming
agricultural news through mass media (television, radio) is a to make the sector more visible, and
present to the Filipino people. This is to make them more aware of its state immediately (Cuevas,
2019). In addition, Filipinos use social media—a lot. The Philippines reportedly spends the most
time online worldwide, spending approximately 10 hours and 2 minutes on the internet daily. The
number of social media users also went from 67 million to 76 million by 2019 (Gonzales, 2019).
With this vast amount of users, one of the ways we can use social media to aid the agricultural
sector is to use it as a platform to raise awareness, and educate the masses of the certain issues
at hand. In the recent years, the media has shown to be effective in doing so. A most recent
example of this is the destruction of the Notre Dame due to fire in April 2019. The event was made
known to the world through mass and social media, and people quickly gave aid for its
reconstruction through donations. It is reported that the pledges to donate have reached almost
a billion dollars (US) in less than five days (Nugent, 2019). Back in May of 2015, the World Wildlife
Foundation (WWF) launched a social media campaign called #EndageredEmoji in order to raise
awareness, and funds to protect endangered animals. Every tweet with an emoji was worth 0.10
euros. Since then, there have been over 60,000 people who signed up to donate for the cause
(Collins, 2016). This shows how powerful the media can be if it were to be used purposefully.
Perhaps we could do the same for our farmers.

The use of media can go even further. Aside from raising funds and awareness, the media can
be a platform in order to create dialogue to get ideas and solutions, and to promote and advocate
for the sector. Social media has opened many opportunities, not just for interpersonal
communication, but also for organizational ones. It has been used by organizations, for dialogue,
building communities, and mobilizing people for their advocacies (Lovejoy & Saxtion, 2012). In
addition, since most people lack the agricultural skills and knowledge (Basnet, 2015), and farmers
do not have access to modern technologies that help with their production, it is an opportunity for
communicators to create the educational content needed to teach them. One could create content
that can inspire farmers, and other people, to try new methods of farming, as well (Cuevas, 2019).
Along with this, in Cuevas’ work, they use the internet in order to help farmers find buyers through
e-commerce solutions, such as business transactions through mobile banking, online marketing,
and also educate them through online learning. They are simply Filipinos who have access to the
technology, and became the bridge that helped the farmers cross.
In other similar studies, they strongly encourage the use of social media for agriculture. In a study
by Irungu, Mbugua, and Muia (2015) about using Information and Communication Technologies
(ICTs) to make the youth interested in agriculture in Kenya, they also had a similar problem of the
youth seeing farming as unattractive—risky and highly unprofitable, it was shown how the use of
ICTs helped them overcome the challenge. Not only was it effective in attracting the youth to go
into farming, but also educating them on the necessary skills for the job. Irungu et al (2015) stated
that “the internet was the best platform to market and promote agriculture to the youth”, as it since
most of the young people get their information from there. Through social media, they were also
able to collaborate, and interact with each other to discuss their individual experiences and
stories, share issues, and find solutions together. Through online research, and through different
ICTs, the youth in Kenya were able to learn more about farm planning and processes in
production. It is also showed that the internet was quite a helpful tool for them to access and share
different kinds of information, such as weather reports and market information, and to provide a
way to transact their business, such as reaching clients, mobile banking payments, and record
keeping. This study further proves Cuevas’ claim that integrating technology is an efficient tool to
help us move forward in this fast-paced world.

The Philippine agriculture problem is a big one, coming from a long line of historical issues in
policy, and lack of support from the government, eventually leading to farmers suffering from
poverty. This lead to people having a negative perception towards working in agriculture, making
them pursue other jobs that are more well-paying. However, people should realize the importance
of the sector for their fellow Filipinos, and make it the focus of development. We could change
that perception and promote it; draw more people in to be employed under the agricultural sector.
These are just some small things we, even as students, can do. A simple commercial, Facebook
or Twitter post, or a YouTube video can come a long way. Since we are in the age of technology,
and more and more Filipinos use the media every day, we could use that to our advantage. The
internet and social media used purposefully has shown its efficiency in raising awareness to many
problems, and sometimes even solving them. It can be used to build communities, to interact, and
collaborate with other people easily, creating dialogue to share ideas and discuss solutions. Social
media can be used to mobilize certain advocacies or movements; call people to action. It is also
there for people to readily access the information they need almost immediately. The media is not
only used for interactions and entertainment, but has also proven to be a powerful platform in
lifting up the world. It is the new generation’s job to utilize the technology in our disposal and
integrate it in solving real-life issues such as this one.
 REFERENCES

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