3 Sister Crops 4 Health – An Idea For A Farm Entrepreneurship For PH Youth

I saw this Facebook sharing by Jonaliza DC of the plan of "DA, ATI To Set Up Entrepreneurship Program For The Youth" (Kristel Merle/Oda Rodriguez, 09 October 2019, da.gov.ph):

The Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) (are) now on the drawing board for the development of a Youth Agri-Entrepreneurship Program, which aims to encourage the Filipino youth to venture into agriculture. Agriculture Secretary William Dar announced during a meeting with the local chief executives of (the Bicol Region), that the DA through ATI, will allocate funds to support young farmers to develop their own agricultural enterprise(s). According to the Secretary, qualified proposals from young college degree holders may be awarded a start-up capital loan of P300,000 – P500,000, payable in five years with zero interest.

Am very much interested in this youth program not as a participant but as an encourager. No matter what the news item implies, I know that the program does not apply to the Bicol Region alone; it applies to the whole Philippines.

Thinking ahead, I can see the exciting problem of generating new ideas for young aggie entrepreneurs, not necessarily farmers' offspring. The image above I modified from MDI of Murshidabad, India – on the image, the words I want to concentrate on are these:

Show your craZy idea.

I know the DA, through the ATI, has a long way to go to encourage PH youth in "coming up with initiatives to motivate and encourage the young Filipinos to take interest in agricultural activities." Why because our Filipino farmers are ageing, meaning the average age is about 57 years.

Yes, but the first problem I see is: "Show your crazy idea." Now then, if I were 50 years younger, I would be interested in pursuing crazy ideas to evolve my own small business out of:

3 Sister Crops.

Googling, I have just learned that Three Sisters is a farming formula practiced by indigenous peoples in the Americas (Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org) and Australia (Yates, yates.com.au). I know also that it is being practiced by the mountain peoples of our own Northern Philippines. Why not in the lowlands? It is time we lowlanders learned from those who know better!

To modify, I am coming out with 3 sister crops grown in 1 healthy soil: (a) growing throughout the year, (b) changing crops, such as between cassava and corn, amargoso and beans, watermelon and squash, and (c) applying no chemical fertilizers, spraying no chemicals.

Before the first planting, to make the soil healthy, we will do weed-trash farming – with a Howard rotavator or hand tractor equipped with similar blades, to create a surface mulch of organic matter all over the field. Repeat next planting with crop refuse-trash farming.

I will convince 3 youths care of MMSU in Batac, PSU in Santa Maria, and CLSU in Muñoz to pursue their own entrepreneurial dreams using my modified croppings – with DA mechanical and LandBank financial assistances. With minimum inputs and maximum outputs, those 3 health crops should make anybody's income dreams, plural, come true!@517