Cebu City Councilor Pastor “Jun” Alcover Jr. | file photo (Contributed)
MANDAUE CITY, Cebu — A Cebu City Councilor is pushing for the grant of “full scholarship” to residents who will take up agriculture-related courses in college.
If approved, the draft ordinance called “Agriculture Scholar Ordinance sa Sugbo” by Councilor Pastor Alcover Jr. will extend scholarships to 10 college students per year.
“The said grant shall include transportation allowance, book allowance, uniform allowance, school fees and tuition,” read part of the proposed legislation that was transmitted to the City Council Secretariat on July 14. It has yet to pass first reading.
In return, scholars will be required to take a full load per semester with no failing grades.
After they graduate, they will also be required to render four years of consultancy service with the city government with a fee that will be determined in the Implementing Rules and Regulations that will be crafted after the proposed ordinance is passed on third and final reading.
“Furthermore, this does not preclude the Cebu City government to hire the beneficiaries as employees.”
Scholars, who fail to comply with the requisites of the city’s grant, will be asked to pay refund of the city’s expense.
Alcover is seeking the allocation of P2 million to initially fund the scholarship program that will be implemented by the Office of the Mayor in coordination with the city’s agriculture department.
He thought of crafting his draft ordinance as he took cognizance of the important “role of agriculture for food sustainability in the modern industrialized world.”
During her recent Cebu visit, Senator Cynthia Villar said that offering education-related courses, especially to the young, would help revive their love for farming.
Instead of leaving their farms to look for employment elsewhere, the children of farmers will already be encouraged to stay and continue to grow crops on their land.
Paired with the use of the right farming models and technology, they will surely be able to earn more from farming, she added.
“Even these young people, pag tama ang model, they will go back to farming and, of course, kung malaki ang kita. Why won’t they go back to farming? Kaya ayaw sa farming kasi maliit ang kita. But if we employ the right model, they will go back,” Villar said.
(Even these young people, if given the right model, they will go back to farming and, of course, if the profits are big. Why won’t they go back to farming? That is why many don’t want to go to farming because the profits are small. But if we employ the right model, they will go back.)
RELATED STORIES
Villar: P32 per kilo of rice possible, not P20
Only the President can resolve these two agriculture challenges
Dept. of Agriculture-7 launches ‘Tabo sa DA’
Cebu City’s agriculture recovers
Central Visayas Food Terminal to be established at SRP
/dbs