Press Release - Imee: 'Bigayan 2024' ng mga batang magbubukid ang Imeesolusyon sa krisis sa bigas

Senator Imee Marcos has high hopes for the awardees and participants of the Young Farmers Challenge (YFC) Program 2023 as the much-anticipated national awarding ceremony and program kick-off, along with her initiated "BIGAYAN 2024 (Bigas at Bayan)" thought leaders roundtable discussion and rice summit on the rice crisis, take place on June 6 in Nueva Ecija, considered as the "Rice Granary" of the Philippines.

"Alam kong marami ang duda kung kaya pa ba natin i-ahon ang sektor ng agrikultura sa nalalapit na hinaharap lalo't may krisis tayo sa bigas ngayon, marami sa ating mga kababayan ang nagugutom, at hindi ito mahahanapan ng solusyon agad-agad. Rice prices persist as the most stubborn cause of inflation, impacting worst of all the poor who spend half of their income on food.

"But for as long as there are committed young Filipino farmers out there who are willing to keep our agriculture sector alive, my hope will always remain high," Marcos said.

The YFC program is a competitive financial grant assistance of the Department of Agriculture (DA). It is intended to bring back the Filipino youth to agriculture by providing access to capital to enable them to venture into profitable agriculture, agri-fishery, and agribusiness and agri-entrepreneurship enterprises, and providing business development assistance.

"The young are not encouraged to get into the agriculture sector mainly because they see farmers remaining poor despite working daily—rain or shine—and thus, they prefer to seek more profitable professions in our big cities," Marcos noted.

She added, "We need programs such as the YFC to make farming more attractive to them, encourage agri-fishery and livestock innovations, otherwise we will continue to lose workers in the agriculture sector."

Taking advantage of the presence of the awardees, LGUs, and agriculture stakeholders, one of the highlights of the first ever rice summit coinciding with the 4th year of the YFC will be the scheduled thought leaders roundtable discussion on the country's rice situation, dubbed "BIGAYAN 2024 (Bigas at Bayan)", to be participated in by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Philippine Rice Research Institute