THE University of the Philippines Rural High School (UPRHS) was awarded a Seed Fund for Research and Development worth $15,000 (P760,000) for its “Youth Program on Agriculture” by the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA).
Dr. Glenn Gregorio, SEARCA director, announced the award at the fundraising event called “Coming Home: Lemuel Cuento in Concert” held on Feb. 26, 2020 at the D.L. Umali Auditorium of the UP Los Baños (UPLB).
SEARCA was also a sponsor of the two-hour concert for the benefit of the UPRHS Youth Program on Agriculture. The concert featured internationally renowned tenor Lemuel Cuento, an alumnus of UPRHS, accompanied by Jesper Colleen Mercado on the piano. It also featured performances by the UPRHS Glee Club.
Gregorio said the seed fund was for the proposal that UPRHS submitted to SEARCA, seeking to engage Grade 11 students in research internships and encourage them to pursue careers in agriculture, nutrition and related fields.
He said SEARCA’s support to UPRHS was in line with the center’s upcoming initiative called Young Forces for Agricultural Innovation or #Y4AGRI. The initiative aims to engage and empower young people — from young children, to high school, college and young professionals — in agricultural innovation.
He said this intends to use awareness, appreciation, action and alliance strategies to attract and mobilize the youth in agriculture that SEARCA calls “Young Agrinnovators.”
“In #Y4AGRI, SEARCA will work with institutions that can help us with our goal to engage and empower the youth in agriculture. That’s one of the reasons why SEARCA supported this concert,” Gregorio said.
Starting in July 2020, SEARCA is raring to implement its 11th Five-Year Plan with a renewed focus to alleviate the plight of the many stakeholders of the agriculture sector, particularly farmers and their families, including the youth.
“SEARCA will also expand and transform its service portfolios and sphere of influence in the ARD (agricultural and rural development) landscape to specifically include non-traditional but equally important beneficiaries, such as K to 12 schools, beyond higher education institutions that the center has already been serving,” Gregorio said.
“We are gearing to facilitate all these efforts because SEARCA believes in the power of the youth,” he added.
