Gov’t Scholarships on Agri, Fishery Courses Needed in CV

Government should provide scholarships to students who want to pursue courses on agriculture and fishery amid the decreasing and aging population of farmers in Central Visayas.

This is one recommendation of the Regional Development Council (RDC-7) that will be endorsed to the Office of the Cabinet Secretariat (OCS) amid the issue on decreasing and aging farmer population in the region.

The issue was raised by some stakeholders in the agriculture sector during the discussion for the preparation of the Central Visayas Regional Economic Situationer as the average age of farmers in the region stands at 57 years old.

Concerns were raised as the region’s young population does not find farming as an attractive occupation due to low productivity and profitability.

Many of the farming families today are said to be shifting to other means of livelihood to lift themselves from poverty.

Efren Carreon, Regional Director of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA-7) and RDC-7 Vice-Chair, presented the issue and the three recommendations by the agriculture stakeholders to avoid the possible critical shortage of farmers.

Apart from the government scholarships, state colleges and universities also need to design short-term diploma agricultural courses and for government to provide financial assistance to graduates for them to pursue their business plan in agriculture.

The third recommendation mentioned by Carreon is to expand the Kapatid Mentor Mo Program of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to cover the agricultural sector.

The DTI program is aimed at helping micro, small and medium entrepreneurs develop and upgrade their business through weekly coaching and mentoring.

Among the nine priority issues of the RDC-7 for elevation to the OCS included the slow implementation of school building program, lack of financial facility to support small-scale property development for tourism, lengthy processing time under the online Company Registration System of the Securities and Exchange, lengthy processing time of applications for the Certificate of Product Registration and License to Operate by the Food and Drug Administration, Absence of Department of Transportation regional office, and the slow implementation of the New Cebu International Container Port, which was approved by the NEDA Board in 2016.

The RDC-7 issues and concerns were tackled and presented during the recent joint RDC-7 and Regional Peace and Order Council (RPOC) meeting attended by member-agencies of both councils from the regional line agencies, private sector, non-government organizations, and the local government units.

Carreon, meanwhile, said the three sectors requiring attention in the region are crops, exports, and fishery.

These sectors are not performing well and impacts on the overall regional economic outputs, added Carreon during the presentation of the 2018 Regional Economic Situationer in the same joint meeting. (fcr/pia7)