In most countries, people engaged in agriculture are ageing. Most of the youth aim to get a degree and build their respective business or work in large corporations but only a few think of becoming a farmer or engage in agriculture. Agribusiness is a sleeping giant in the economy that needs to be promoted and cultivated.
Ensuring a stable food supply is a big challenge for every government as most of the agricultural lands are being used for industrial, housing, and business activities and the younger generations don’t want to be farmers.
AIMCooP, a primary cooperative in the Philippines has taken a step forward to serve as a catalyst of change in the community as part of its social responsibility. It conducted a series of activities to motivate its members, especially youth, to encourage them to play a key role in developing a sustainable supply of food. These include:
AGRI-AKO loan programme: A product offered to members to borrow money with 0% interest, serving as the capital for their agri-business production.
High-yielding interest rates on savings: Opportunity for members to deposit and save their income from agri-business. This is to motivate members, especially the youth, to save.
Partnership: AIMCooP offers free agricultural training to all interested participants via industrial partnerships with private agri companies and government agencies to ensure continuous learning for the production and enhancement of technology.
Training: AIMCooP is conducting training on the Transition of Native to Hybrid Coconut farming among its members. This allows participants to widen their knowledge in coconut farming and learn new things that can improve production leading to an increase in income.
Market matching: AIMCooP facilitates market linkages to ensure that all the produce of its farmers reaches the market at a higher buying price compared to the prevailing market price.
AIMCooP Go Green Plus Programme: This is a specially designed training programme for youth to make them aware and encourage them to take up agriculture. Inspired by the Go Green Campaign of International Cooperative Alliance Asia and Pacific Committee on Youth Cooperation (ICYC), this motivates youth to plant vegetable seeds (five different kinds) and nurture them until they bear fruit. They are asked to take a daily note of the progress. The top 10 participants will be eligible to receive a college scholarship and employment opportunities at AIMCoop after graduating.
AIMCoop believes that if we start today by engaging the youth with the guidance of cooperative principles, we can create a future that sustains the needs of people and at the same time create an environment for children to enjoy nature and live a healthy life.
