For the seventh episode of the Aggie Ps Talk 5.0: AgriCOOLture Youth Champions, a young public servant from Batangas, Philippines and a young professor-researcher from Taiwan were given the opportunity to share their experiences. 

Opening the session was no less than the Dean of the College of Agriculture and Food Science (CAFS), UPLB, Dr. Elipidio M. Agbisit, Jr. As this is already the fifth season of the webinar series, Dean Agbisit is overwhelmed with the support. He acknowledged that while it can be observed that farmers are aging and interest in agriculture is declining, the participants’ presence shows that agriculture will be great again. He also said that the speakers are superheroes as they are testament that the youth are ready to take over agriculture and make it even better. 

The young agricultural public servant

A young government employee, Mr. Rinkoh Hernandez started as the Municipal Agriculturist of San Luis, Batangas at the young age of 23. As an Iskolar ng bayan para sa bayan, Mr. Hernandez shows his compassion and heart in helping the farmers and fisherfolks in their community. 

As an agricultural town, the Office of the Municipal Agriculturist of San Luis has numerous regular and special programs for agriculture and fisheries. With Mr. Hernandez at the helm, sustainability is prioritized especially for the livelihood programs. He also strengthened collaboration with various public and private organizations to develop the agriculture and fishery sector of San Luis. 

Moving forward, Mr. Hernandez shared some of his proposed projects and programs that are aimed to further strengthen the municipality’s agriculture and fisheries. He also emphasized the importance of being open minded, especially since being a public servant entails working at the grassroots level. Ultimately, he said that one should have the “puso to serve the people” in order to become a successful municipal agriculturist.

The young agricultural academician

The second speaker of the episode is a young but accomplished academician. He is Dr. Nai Yu-Shin, assistant professor at the Department of Entomology at the National Chung Hsing University. 

Through his presentation titled, “Life of PI: Establishment and development of insect microbial resources for controlling pest,” Dr. Yu-Shin shared his journey to achieve his current position. Like in the movie, Life of Pi,  Dr. Yu-Shin had to survive a shipwreck in the ocean of academia, had to travel through various positions before emerging as an assistant professor and chief investigator of his own research project.

Currently, Dr. Yu-Shin works are geared towards safeguarding agriculture by discovering and developing new microbial- and genetic- based strategies for pest control. He also aims to establish a better understanding of the mechanisms of insect-microbiome interactions by aligning with recent technological advances in omics.

Closing the episode was Dr. Christine B. Adiova, deputy director of the Institute of Animal Science, CAFS, UPLB. She hopes that the participants were inspired with the stories of the speakers just as she is moved by their experiences.

This is the fifth season of the CAFS webinar series, Rebooting Agriculture in the New Normal: Webfresher Courses. 

Watch the episode through CAFS YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=874RuQS-Igo

By Alyssa Kaye S. Mojar