BY LEANDER C. DOMINGO
LAGUNA (March 30, 20223)—The Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (Searca) is emboldening the students of the Batangas province-based Balete Family Farm School Inc. (BFFS) in a learning event that will enable them to refine the business plans they developed as part of their family enterprise project and gain additional learning on agripreneurship.
Dr. Glenn Gregorio, Searca director, said the BFFS has the distinction of being the only all-female family farm school in Asia. The BFFS teaching and administrative staff as well as students are all female. All the students are in junior high school.
“In view of this, the one-day learning activity hosted by Searca on March 31, 2023 is a fitting culminating celebration of International Women’s Month,” Gregorio said.
Sharon Malaiba, Searca unit head for partnerships, also said BFFS is engaged in various livelihood projects to help finance its scholarship program for poor but eligible young girls to get a high school education with an entrepreneurial orientation focused on agriculture.
“Seeing the value of empowering schoolgirls and farming families through quality education, Searca has reached out to BFFS to provide an avenue for their graduating students to present their agri-based business plans to a panel of experts from Searca,” Malaiba explained.
Gregorio said Searca’s experts will evaluate the students’ business plans and in addition, it will also conduct a lecture on agripreneurship for the family farm school students and teachers and stimulate an innovation mindset in agriculture among the youth.
“Searca hopes to empower the next generation of agriculture leaders and professionals through knowledge sharing and experiential learning,” he added.
Gregorio noted that this initiative articulates Searca’s priority focus on gender and youth engagement in agriculture and rural development as well as agri-business models for increased productivity and income.
Searca is headquartered on the campus of the University of the Philippines Los Baños.