The Cagayan Valley Region once again rises as it set to launch “Young Hands in Agriculture”.

The initiative was formally announced during the Monday convocation of the Department of Agriculture – Regional Field Office No. 02 (DA RFO 02) last April 8, 2019.

The move was an offshoot of the recently concluded DA’s Information Caravan on Agriculture at DA – Southern Cagayan Research Center – Cagayan Breeding Station (SCRC-CBS), Maguirig, Solana, Cagayan which was attended by almost a thousand young people.

“This is our commitment particularly in engaging the youth of today to venture in the agriculture sector,” said OIC-Regional Technical Rose Mary G. Aquino of DA-RFO 02.

For his part, Regional Executive Director Narciso A. Edillo said that he fully supports the proposed undertaking.

“I give my all-out support to this undertaking,” he said. “This is in response to the marching order of our President Rodrigo Roa Duterte and Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol for us to go back to basics.”

“We need to have our young involved in food production because our farmers are aging,” Edillo added.
“The showing of the almost 1,000 youth during the event,” Aquino uttered, “that we cannot miss launching a club that will help them thrive in choosing many careers in agriculture.”

As an initial start, DA-RFO 02 officials agreed that all the regular and contractual employees who are in their twenty’s or thirty’s shall be members and assigned Mr. Marvin Luis of the Operations Division to lead the organization meantime.

“We will also involve our Resource Persons during the information caravan as founding members since they are already practitioners of agriculture,” Aquino said.

“We will be coordinating with Agricultural Training Institute (ATI), non-government organizations (NGO) and other concerned entities involved in the provision of programs and pieces of training for youth.”

“Today, we commit to starting this organization that will help youth understand where food is coming from,” she added.

The organization will be open to all interested young individuals or groups to participate in the said endeavor.

DA has been consistently involving the youths in activities that will elevate their interests to enter the world of agriculture.

Yearly, the department, in tandem with local government units and attached agencies, is giving awards to outstanding individuals and groups through the search for Gawad Saka Agricultural Achievers.