Agriculture Business Week

A foundation known as Pampamilyang Paaralang Agrikultura, Inc. is spearheading the youth’s formation towards a deep love for farming.

At a time when most high school students are either directly or indirectly honed by their respective schools to pursue college courses that will enable them to get high paying white-collared jobs, a foundation known as Pampamilyang Paaralang Agrikultura, Inc. is spearheading a different tack – strengthening the youth’s formation towards a deep love for farming.

Since 1987, a selected number of rural elementary graduates who pass a rigorous battery of tests go through four years of general education courses as subscribed by the Department of Education. But over and above these courses, these students are exposed to agricultural subjects and technologies which they themselves partly designed in consultation with their teachers and parents. As they enter their senior year, most of these students decide to take up agricultural related courses and continue their parents’ farming activities or embark on their own agricultural endeavors. This is what makes the Family Farm Schools (FFS) unique, relevant and truly remarkable.

“There are actually many Family Farm Schools all over the world,” explains Joseph Jerome N. Sibonga, Head of Pedagogy of the FFS systems in the Philippines. “Our founder, Mr. Fritz Gemperle, was the one who started this in our country. He got the concept from one of his visits in Spain where he saw the operations of the Escuelas Pain ilyaresAyrarias. He saw that it is a very good concept for rural development so when he came back here, he established the Pampamilyang Paaralang Agrikultura, Inc. and opened the first FFS in Dagatan, Lipa, Batangas on August 8, 1988. It was inaugurated by no less than former President Corazon Aquino.”

Sibonga, an agriculture graduate major in animal science from the University of the Philippines at Los Banos (UPLB) became one of the faculty members of the Dagatan FFS. Before he started teaching, he was sent by the foundation for an intensive training in Spain where he got himself acquainted with the FFS operations and pedagogy. Today, the mild-mannered Sibonga heads the training of their faculty not just in Dagatan, but in eight other family farm schools located in different parts of the country. These are in Balete and Tuy in Batangas, Roxas, Oriental Mindoro, Calabanga Camarines Sur in Bicol (called La Salud), Dingle, Iloilo, Bais City, Negros Oriental, Pinamongahan Cebu (called Holy Rosary Farm School) and in Sultan Naga Dimpaoro, Lanao del Norte.

“The FFS in Dagatan, Tuy, Bais, Dingle and Lanao are all schools for boys,” explains Sibonga, “The one in Balete is exclusive for girls and the rest are co-ed. We have different board members for each school so in a way, they all operate in an autonomous manner. We have an average of 120-160 students per school. In each of these schools, we have a minimum of five and a maximum of nine faculty members, most of whom have agricultural backgrounds. Before, education is 100% free. But since we have to sustain our operations, we have chosen to adapt the socialized tuition fee, meaning the parents pay according to their declared incomes.”

According to Sibonga, the basic requirement for entering the FFS is that students have to be elementary graduates living in the rural areas. Years ago, they only select students who are sons and daughters of farmers but they have changed their policy and began to accept anyone as long as they come from the rural areas and pass the entrance exams.

The FFS website states that “all FFS in the world are characterized by the same fundamental principles. These are: The responsibility of the families in the formation of their children, that they participate in the formation, management and daily operation of every FFS and extending to all the rural areas; a particular pedagogy for the integral development of the young people; it uses a formation method called “the alternation” between the associate-professional rural world and the center of formation. This allows for a permanent relationship between practice and theory, work and study, expericnce and knowledge; the community participates in the formation: this assures the total formation of the students and favors personal and collective promotion of the community, therefore it is a vehicle for community development and cultural authentication and bases for permanent formation.

To fulfill the above principles, the Family Farm Schools see to it that they adhere to the four pillars. These four pillars are i) Integral Formation, 2) Rural Development, 3) Alternancia, and ) Responsible Associations. The first two pillars are the aims of the Family Farm School while the latter two are the means to achieve the aims.”

Another unique characteristic of the FFS, which Sibonga expounds, is the PAKSA, which he describes as a thematic approach to learning. “These are topics which the students study every cycle,” he says. There are family visits and professional get-togethers. An example of a topic is about coconuts. So they study the whole aspect of coconuts. They visit a coconut farm and they have a get together with the Department of Agriculture personnel who talk about coconuts. These topics are identified together with the parents.”

Before the students finish their studies they are also required to submit a Family Enterprise Project (FEP). Sibonga explains: “They have a project proposal they submit to this school. This is a proposal of the whole family, meaning the kid plus their parents.l’hey will implement this even before they graduate. So it could be an existing family business or they could start a new one. Before they graduate, all students are required to implement their respective projects. And most of them have become successful. Some of them are already running their own piggeries. Some enroll in BS Agriculture. Some work in other places. They are prepared to face the real world in terms of work attitude. They are trained to handle problems whether it be family, financial or economic aspects. They are able to think for themselves.”

Sibonga says government officials from the top Senators down to the barangay captains are all convinced of the FFS’ power to inculcate to the young minds a deep appreciation and respect for agriculture. However, like most NGOs who suffer from donor fatigue, funds still remain slow especially at this time when the global financial crisis has hit every conceivable aspect of practically all developmental endeavors. “We’re hopeful and positive that our local officials, together with the private sector, will be more supportive of our efforts. This is really our humble way of not only educating our youth, but improving the quality of life in the countryside as well. We’re involving the whole family here. On a personal note, since we have been working in agriculture for quite sometime, this is also our humble way of paying it forward. As former students, we were taught how to farm, now it’s payback time.

For more in formation on the FFS, call +632-8993332 or 8892931 or log on to www.ffspilipinas.org