BORONGAN CITY- The proposal at the House of Representatives that would mandate the government to come up with a program for young farmers is being supported by the solon in the lone district of Eastern Samar.
Rep. Ben Evardone has informed that he already mandated the management of the Eastern Samar State University (ESSU) earlier to design a program that would encourage the youth to continue to study agriculture in order for them to replace — if not follow in the footsteps of the few aging farmers and to help secure the food security of the country.
The bill, passed by Rep. Alfred Vargas, is now being deliberated at the Lower House.
The bill also aims to encourage incoming college students to choose and finish a course in agriculture through the socialized tuition scheme for those who will enroll in agriculture as well as in fisheries.
Rep. Evardone said that the proposed bill will help encourage to go into agriculture as the new generation appears of not being encouraged to take up courses in agriculture due to its difficulty and that a farmer’s income is not enough.
Aside from this, the average level of education of a farmer is mostly elementary reason they are not that open to use modern farming technologies that would heThe said bill mandates the members of National Agriculture and Fisheries System to implement the Young Farmers Program (YFP).
Local government units (LGUs) are also mandated to support the said program through an additional counterpart funding assistance.
Meantime, Evardone announced the realization of one of his programs in education that he is pushing through — the free college education for state universities and colleges (SUCs) students starting on school year 2017-2018.
According to him, included in the 2016 National Budget approved by the bicameral conference committee on December 14, 2016 is theP 8 billion fund for the implementation of the said program.(PIA-EASTERN SAMAR)
