Agri Culture

CULTURAL NOTES

Richard Kinnud

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet -- As we write, the College of Agriculture of Benguet State University (BSU) is culminating a week-long celebration of Agriculture Week.  This is in remembrance of the formal foundation of the college on May 16, 1984 as one of the service units of the then Mountain State Agricultural College. 
    When this article comes to print on Sunday, the smoke of the celebration settled so to say, but as it is, the stakeholders will surely continue to take pride of their college, just as how agriculture continues to matter in our lives.
    Historically, Benguet State University has once been the Trinidad Experimental Farm Station researching on vegetables and fruits such as the strawberries.   It became the La Trinidad Farm School when the then Bureau of Agriculture turned over the station to the then Bureau of Education. 
    Since then it has offered agriculture related courses in basic education, then later in college and graduate school when it has metamorphosed into those. At present, aside from instructing in agriculture, the institution is also fulfilling its mandates in research and extension works to disseminate developed technologies and assistance to communities, and participation in production of goods and services, many of which are agriculture related.
    The Strawberry Fields of La Trinidad is one agricultural showcase that involves the university.  The fields are actually part of the university land reservation which is being leased out to farmers through its various programs.  The tenants are not just helped economically thru the provision of a land resource but they also benefit from the  university’s research, extension, and production services.  Examples are on the areas of having runners resistant to diseases, the increase of yields, and soil maintenance among others.   (By the way, it is not only strawberries that are grown in the Strawberry Farm but also various vegetables such as cauliflower, lettuce, broccoli and even flowers.)
    The above illustrate how the academe is one of the pillars of agriculture in many of its fields and forms especially in farming communities.  And pillars are not without challenges. 
    In the recent admissions for first year college in BSU, the programs in agriculture are among the last ones to be filled out.  It is either other courses such as nursing and engineering are really more appealing or that there is a disinterest to the field of agriculture. Some said that this is not just a reality in the locality but elsewhere in the country.
    I remember a book in which the title describes an ethnic group as a people who daily touch the earth and sky. That is through their agricultural and even social practices.  This   indicates a high premium the people afford to their land and consequently to agriculture.
    On the other hand, there are stories of parents and benefactors discouraging the young from taking agriculture in college “ta apay? Agfarmer ka lang?” (Because why?  Would you like to be just a farmer?). The remark is of course based on a wrong premise and conclusion as an agriculture graduate is a scientist; yet the consequence of such a remark could be damaging to an established culture of touching the earth and sky.
    Pillars are shapers of culture.  And thus the academe must also contribute to solutions to challenges like this that seem to result to damage rather than development.  It would not be just the college of agriculture but would involve others in the academe.
    (Belated greetings to the faculty, staff, students, alumni and other stakeholders of the BSU College of Agriculture.)