Marcos: Make agriculture cool again

In a bold push to draw the youth back into farming and fishing, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is banking on technology to revive and transform the country’s aging agriculture sector.

“We need to utilize new technologies. Because that’s what we really need so that each hectare of land has a greater yield, a greater harvest,” the President told farmers and fisherfolk in Muñoz, Nueva Ecija.

He noted that the youth understand technology, as well as its application in agriculture.

“The ones who understand and are the real practitioners, that is, of high-tech agriculture, intensive and extensive types of agriculture, are the young people. They are the ones who will teach us new technologies,” he said.

“And I think that will be interesting for our young people so that they can President Marcos Jr. pushes for tech-driven reforms in agriculture to entice the youth back into farming and fishing, aiming to revitalize the aging sector with innovation and policy shifts.

President Marcos Jr. pushes for tech-driven reforms in agriculture to entice the youth back into farming and fishing, aiming to revitalize the aging sector with innovation and policy shifts.

see that farmers have a good job,” he added.

Marcos lamented that the average age of farmers today is far older than it used to be.

“The average age of our farmers and fisherfolks is already too high,” he said.

He also pointed out that the lives of farmers are hard which leads them to give their children a good education and start a career working in offices.

“Those who have studied, they want to be in an air-conditioned office and be a little more comfortable. Because life is really hard. We see that in the provinces, the hard life of farmers,” he said.

However, Marcos believes that Filipinos are strong and hard-working despite hardships.

“Even if there is a little bit of difficulty, of course, you have to work hard and everything. Filipinos are hardworking. Even the young ones are really hardworking as long as they see results,” he said.

“I think the sacrifice that is needed to improve our harvest, I think the Filipinos who will become farmers will say it’s worth it. Even if there is sacrifice, it’s worth it,” he added.

Marcos said he would make changes in agricultural policy to entice people to a life and a future in farming.

“We haven’t had an agricultural policy for a very, very long time. So the kids will say, why are we going to get into that? There’s nothing — there’s no going back, that’s all,” he said.

“So now, we’re going to change all that. Now there’s hope. They’ll see that there’s an improvement in the livelihood of farmers and they’ll return to farming,” he added.