DILIMAN, Quezon City – Some 25 student members of the Agriculture Students Association of the Philippines (ASAP) are now equipped to further amplify the voice of the youth in agriculture after being trained on social media content creation and video production through the first ever Youth AgriConnect-Skills and Campaign Development Workshop.

Spearheaded by the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI), in partnership with the Inquirer Academy and ASAP, this activity is a two-part workshop via Zoom. It aimed to improve the capacity of the youth to create effective agriculture campaigns for fellow students from junior high school, senior high school, and college levels.

During the opening program, ATI Officer-in-Charge (OIC) Assistant Director Antonieta Arceo highlighted that the activity is about “tapping the youth to develop content for the youth, taking the entire value chain into consideration.”

The OIC-Assistant Director furthered how the initiative focused on involving young people in a government program that is made specifically for them.

Arceo said, “We want you to speak your own language, develop and express your own content as agriculture advocates.”

“It’s the youth helping us in the ATI to further advocate for more young people to venture into agriculture,” she added.

Likewise, ASAP Co-founder and Advisor Peter Olivar stressed the importance of creating a platform of discussion for agriculture students and advocates across the regions of the country.

He shared that the ASAP was “initially a small group of idealist young people, and is now a home to more than a thousand members proving that the youth are still interested in agriculture.”

On behalf of the ASAP members, Olivar also expressed his gratitude, to the leadership of the Department of Agriculture and the Institute especially in the implementation of different youth-centered agriculture programs and projects.

Moreover, he challenged the participants to “intensify the existing voice of the youth in the sector” by creating effective content.

“This activity is a way for us youth, to expand our ground; to explore our platform; and to really make the most of what we have,”ASAP Director for Visayas Jose Paolo Echavez affirmed as he acknowledge the participants.

Specifically, the course content during the workshop include the essentials of social media management and personal branding as discussed by Digital Marketing consultant Millie Morales; and essentials of video production with Jag Garcia, a Film Director and Design Thinking Instructor and Innovation Mentor. A supplemental course on the essentials of podcasting was also provided by Patricia Aquino and Marc Casillan of PumaPodcast, a Philippine podcast production company.

At the end of the activity, the participants came up with an organizational content plan for online and offline media and are now working on the production of their short agriculture campaign video.

This first part of the workshop was held last October 26-28, while the second part was conducted last November 13, 20, and 27.