More than 150 students attended Monsanto’s seminar on Agri-counselling
Legacy Monsanto Philippines recently partnered with the Cagayan Provincial Learning and Resource Center (CPLRC) under the Office of Governor Manuel Mamba for the conduct of an agricultural biotech seminar for farmers and an agri-counselling seminar for senior high school students.
The said seminars which were both held at the Provincial Library draw attendees from the different municipalities of Cagayan including Appari, Claveria Santo Niño, Enrile and Amulung. Key officials of the local government also attended the seminars.
Chat Garrido-Ocampo, Corporate Affairs Head of Legacy Monsanto Philippines, said that doing seminars is but one of the company’s many ways to reach out to important stakeholders – our farmers and the youth. Ocampo shared that there are also trainings for farmers through their smart farms which are periodically set up across the country and CSR activities which benefit farming families.
“Our farmers are so vulnerable to many things like extreme weather conditions and pests. They need all the assistance that we can provide,” Ocampo said. “Meantime, we also have less competent farm hands now. Most of the younger generation have no interest in getting into farming because of a mistaken notion that there is no money in it and that it is so difficult. We have to correct this wrong perception because with modern agricultural tools and innovations, farming can really be very lucrative.”
During the seminar on agricultural biotechnology, Legacy Monsanto’s Regulatory Policy and Scientific Affairs (RPSA) Head Gabriel Romero, shared the socio-economic benefits of agricultural biotechnology and how biotech corn has a certain level of resistance against fall army worm (FAW). Meantime, Legacy Monsanto’s Human Resources (HR) Head Cherie Ocampo got the 150 senior high school students who attended her seminar interested and excited in careers in agriculture as she spoke of the most recent innovations that are fast changing the agricultural landscape.
Legacy Monsanto’s RPSA Lead spoke on the benefits of agricultural biotecvhnology while its HR Lead spoke on careers in agriculture
Governor Mamba’s agricultural consultant, Dr. Pearl Mabasa, expressed appreciation for the conduct of the said seminars and shared that Cagayan is a top producer of corn and has been a Corn Achiever’s Award recipient. She said new agricultural technologies would be helpful specially with the current plan to open Appari Port so that Cagayanons can have an expanded market for their agricultural produce.
This is the 7th year that Legacy Monsanto Philippines has been partnering with CPLRC. Michael Pinto, CPLRC Head, expressed that the said partnership had been beneficial to common stakeholders specially in promoting modern agriculture to Cagayanons.
Ocampo, meantime, thanked Governor Mamba and the CPLRC for their continuing trust and confidence in Legacy Monsanto Philippines as she said that “hopefully our partnership will continue so we can positively impact more lives in Cagayan.”
