LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Belance Comon, 58, starts his day with a cup of coffee, a fast spoonful for breakfast, then sets off to work near the farmlands in Buguias municipality where he had been hiring out as a farmer almost his life. Soon, he will retire from farming.
But his children will not follow in his footsteps. Or, even if want to, Comon would rather want them to finish schooling and land a different job.
Hence, In the next 10 to 12 years, almost all regions in the Philippines will face a deficit of farmers.
If that happens, agriculture, still deemed the fount of the Philippine populace as it provides the most basic needs, will suffer. And the Philippines known for its fertile soil and rural heritage where more than half of the populace resides, farming has been lagging behind.
It will be a big challenge for both the government and private sectors as the average age of farmers is 55 to 59 years old.
While the average Filipino farmers will have spent a good 25 or more years toiling the land. Assuming a retirement age of over 65, they only have 12 productive years left.
And there isn’t enough young Filipinos to step into their place, not even the offspring of farmers. In fact, these farmers themselves discourage their kids in becoming farmers.
For a better shot in life, the remaining farmers of the land consider farming for their children only as the last resort. They would not trade the future of their children by encouraging them to farm; they’d rather want their offspring to finish college, land a stable job or apply for work overseas.
Can farmers be blamed for discouraging their children becoming farmers, too? Not at all. As the saying goes, “There is paltry money in farming,” or “Farming does not pay.”
Farmer-parents wouldn’t like their children to suffer the vicious cycle of poverty that often tie Filipino farmers to the endless cycle of indebtedness as most lack the capital which is a structural obstacle in Philippine farming.
While recent studies showed the trend of youth choosing agriculture has been growing worldwide due to opportunities that this sector offers, it is, unfortunately, the other way around in the Philippines.
Except in Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) agriculture is still wrongly considered by many Filipinos in other regions as a “poor man’s profession, often equated to dirty work as it involves cultivation of land.
In CAR, agriculture still remains one among the three major economic underpinnings of this northern, highland region.
Such growing concern can be re-translated to mean, “Without the Filipino farmers, there will be no food.”
To take up the cudgels of the aging farmers, a generation of young farmers must be inspired to become successors in guaranteeing food security. The pathway towards this end must take place in tandem to the time the aging farmers will finally call it quits in tilling.
How can young Filipinos be supported to become interested in agriculture? Or, how can agriculture be rebranded that it will perk the interest of the young. Will there be a generation of farmers to take the place of aging Filipino farmers?
Fortunately for farming in the Philippines, all is not lost.
Such an enlightening beacon is traced in the study “Sprout UP Movement: Strategy Formulation Based on Factors Influencing Youth Intent to Pursue Agriculture,” and conducted by Arvin Joshua P. Barlongo, Graduate School, University of the Philippines (UP), Los Banos, Laguna.
This rebranding agriculture study was submitted to the Benguet State University (BSU) last year and was finally accepted the same year for inclusion in BSU’s prestigious research arm, the Mountain Journal of Science and Interdisciplinary Research.
Pondering about young Filipinos and farming raises basic questions about Philippine agriculture’s future, both of rural young women and men and of agriculture itself.
Sometimes, one of the worst assumptions of some bureaucrats is they think they know more and care more about the natural environment than the Filipino farmers who own, cultivate and depend on the land for their very survival.
In reality, there are no greater environmentalist than farmers. They love their land. For so many of them, it is their legacy — what they hope to leave to their children someday.
Farmers tend to take good care of their legacies because they literally live the lessons of the land in their daily work.
As Rogelio Badiko, a Benguet farmer said: “We teach our kids how to protect it, because we will go bankrupt and starve if we do not.”
Barlongo intimated that the future shape of Philippine rural communities will depend to a large extent on future generations of young rural people, their interest and their ability to acquire the needed resources for farming careers and livelihoods.
In his research, Barlongo discovered that perceived behavioral control, including employment opportunities and personal confidence significantly impact attitudes towards agriculture, affecting subjective norms and an intention to pursue an agriculture-related degree.
This is a surprising finding of the indirect relationship of behavioral control and intention and mediated by attitude.
The study suggested then that the best step forward involves expanding and building partnerships with higher education institutions and enhancing social media content to highlight employment opportunities and boost youth confidence to pursue agriculture-related careers.
Barlongo stressed engaging youth in agriculture is essential for nation-building. Many Filipino youths are discouraged from pursuing agricultural careers due to the prevailing negative perceptions that farmers are poor, underpaid and unappreciated.
One way to achieve this is by leveraging technology to make agriculture more appealing and accessible to young people.
On the other hand, empirical evidence suggests that engaging in practical, hands-on activities positively impacts student motivation, enhances their interest and improves academic performance and retention and these can be seen in capacity-building activities, the study explained.
Hands-on learning significantly increases student’s enthusiasm for academic pursuits that encourages students to acquire knowledge through direct experience. Such a method enables students to interact with tangible materials or objects that represent theoretical concepts being studied. For example, in agricultural classes, practical aspects of the subject matter.
Barlongo presented in his study that to bridge the gap regarding agricultural pursuit, a social movement for agriculture must be started even despite political leadership changes, driving social change for agriculture.
By doing so. The Filipino youth is navigated towards a more positive outlook on agriculture.
A Sprout Up Movement initiative in the Philippines has been tracked by Barlongo that aims to encourage young people to pursue agriculture as a career through social media content creation.
As found by the study, the movement spotlights personal stories and journeys of people who are currently enrolled in agriculture-related degree programs as well as those who are working in agriculture as professionals.
The sprout up movement rests on the premise that it is crucial to expand opportunities in agriculture, rebrand the sector and actively engage the youth.
While government agricultural institutions Like Benguet State University (BSU) have already been established for the intellectual enrichment of the youth wanting to take up agriculture, strengthening further the academic curriculum ensures provision of a holistic view of the agriculture industry.
It also highlights the different employment and entrepreneurial opportunities the agriculture sector entails so that the youth can consider agriculture as an empowering and a viable career choice.
In the sprout movement, programs that push for experiential learning are established and enhanced to build practical capacity and develop confidence of the youth to engage in the industry.
Furthermore, the movement is a representation of agriculture deemed critical to ensure that the whole of Philippine society and shift from the demeaning and prejudiced views of agriculture, which may effectively lead to industry appreciation and interest in engaging.
The challenge remains to keep attracting the youth to take agriculture as a profession, whether or not with a college degree. Perhaps, the best way to encourage them is to support farming groups whose main goal is to promote farming in general, like the Sprout Up Movement.
On a bigger scale, bilateral programs by the Philippines with other countries on agriculture should be encouraged and pursued. On this score, the young can work as agricultural exchange scholars.
Years back, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) now officially called Department of Economy, Planning and Development (DEPDEV) studied a worrying trend of labor exodus afflicting the country’s agricultural labor force.
The study, titled, “Rural Labor Migration: An Analysis of the Loss of the Labor in the Agriculture Sector in the Philippines,” showed the gnawing truth that 15 out of 17 regions in the country reported drastic losses in agriculture employment.
From a workforce of 12.25 million, the number of Filipinos involved in agriculture plummeted to 9.07 million. And highland Cordillera is one of the regions that saw a dip in agriculture employment.
As of this month of 2025, The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said the agriculture and forestry sectors lost 609,000 jobs, 483000 of which came from rice farming, particularly in rice producing regions of Cagayan and Western Visayas.
The government must find ways to pull agricultural wages to the same level enjoyed by other sectors if it wants to encourage the young to stay in farming.
It is a very good thing that the Department of Agriculture (DA) has established the national Young Farmers Challenge, allowing young farmers to win financial grants to as much as 300,000 pesos each to those who engage in agriculture and fishery business.
Agricultural wages must also be at par with other business employment. As such, it is necessary for industry stakeholders to build an inclusive, sustainable and resilient agriculture industry through the provision of appropriate policies, support and assistance to consequently lead the youth, out of their own volition, to engage with the agriculture industry, Barlongo explained.
If such agricultural labor wages cannot be addressed, we might as well be singing, “Where have all the farmers gone, long time passing.”
