MAGNA CARTA OF YOUNG FARMERS

FOURTH District Rep. Christopher De Venecia’s House bill, Magna Carta of Young Farmers, recently received the endorsement of the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) for its immediate passage.

The bill which aims to protect and promote the well-being of young farmers, aged 15 to 35, recognizes the strategic role of young farmers by providing a policy framework that will afford them a sense of pride and opt to stay in the farms, make a decent living from agriculture and secure the food sufficiency of the country.

If adopted, it will also strengthen existing and state-of-the-art farming activities and provide incentives to encourage young agricultural graduates to venture into agriculture and become ‘agri-preneurs’.

He said the government should encourage young people to engage in agriculture by establishing mechanisms for the promotion and protection of their rights, since the average age of Filipino farmers is already 57-59 years old.

“By lending its gravitas to this cause, I thank the NEDA for its high-level advice to my fellow policymakers to pass the Magna Carta of Young Farmers immediately,” De Venecia said.

NEDA Deputy Director General Rosemarie Edillon eyed the Magna Carta of Young Farmers, as among the priority legislations of the Duterte administration in its last three years to boost economic growth.

The bill was first filed at the House of Representatives by De Venecia in the 17th Congress. He re-filed the said measure in the present Congress.

De Venecia noted that the enrolment trend for agricultural courses used to be 51 percent in the 80s at the University of the Philippines (Los Baños) but this already decreased to two percent only.

He said the Department of Education has been offering agricultural tracks for senior high school plus the introduction of the school gardening program in elementary grades “yet the enrollment is still low”.

He said one feature of his bill is to exempt young farmers from donor’s tax when they inherit the farm land from their parents with the caveat that they don’t sell it for at least another five years. (PhilStar Wire Service/ECV)

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