The Manila Economic and Cultural Office is now working with the national government for the grant of agricultural lands to 48 young Filipinos who underwent training in Taiwan on modern agricultural production.
MECO chairperson Silvestre Bello III disclosed that 48 internship completers comprise the second batch of interns under the Filipino Young Farmers Internship Program, a partnership of MECO and the Taiwan
Economic and Cultural Office which started in 2021.
According to Bello, he has sounded off concerned government agencies for the grant of farmlands to the fresh batch of 48 interns.
“In this manner, our internship graduates will be able to demonstrate model farms utilizing advance technologies in farming, aquaculture, poultry, dairy, and other fields of agricultural and fisheries production, and value chain management,” Bello said in a statement.
The program, considered a big boost to the Philippines’ agricultural sector, started with the deployment of 29 farmers who composed the first batch. They finished their 11-month program in September 2022.
The batch of 48 interns, on the other hand, flew to Taiwan in August 2022 and were deployed to 33 host farms. They came from various parts of the country like Ilocos Norte, Kalinga, Zamboanga region, and Davao region.
For this batch, 17 young farmers were trained in vegetable farms, 12 in fruit farms, six in rice production, four in mushroom, three in swine, and another three in poultry, two in dairy farms, and one each in aquaculture and cut flower farming.
“For this year, at least 100 slots are open for farmers aged 19 to 28 years old who are interested to do on-the-job training in Taiwanese farms,” Bello said.
Based on the program, trainees are provided with free lodging and at least a USD600 ( monthly allowance for the duration of the 11-month training period, but would shoulder their one-way airfare to Taiwan.
Applicants in the program are screened by the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) of the Department of Agriculture.