A House leader has urged the Aquino administration to encourage schoolchildren to pursue farming and farming related jobs for greater food security.

Rep. Teodorico Haresco of Ang Kasangga party-list, Vice Chairman of the House Committee on Small Businesses and Enterprises, noted that the trend of dwindling farmers in the country should be countered, considering that the county needs enough farmers to ensure food security.

Haresco cited that parents these days would rather have children who earn minimum wages rather than breaking sweat to plant palay and corn.

“I understand why parents wouldn’t want to see their children being stuck in farms even if this had been their family’s way of life for many generations because tilling the soil is hard work. It’s hot, it’s filthy and the pay is barely survivable. As such, the Department of Education should heighten its campaign among elementary students to persuade them to pursue agriculture as a future career and with the help of the latest agricultural breakthroughs,” Haresco said.

The young pupils, Haresco said, should be acquainted with ways to multiple harvests and multi-layered farms which could make farming the most lucrative and most rewarding profession in the near future.

In addition, Haresco called on the government to open more scholarship programs, considering that the Philippines has one of the most respected agricultural institutions in the Asian region such as the University of the Philippines College of Agriculture and the adjoining International Rice Research Institute in Los Baños, Laguna.