From texting strangers to texting the PhilRice Text Centre
Jaime Albarillo Manalo IV, Elske van de Fliert · 2012
Filipino youth exodus from agriculture has been very apparent in recent decades. Most of them are being groomed for jobs abroad such as becoming nurses and seafarers. This is indeed a sad reality for a country whose economy is largely dependent on agriculture. This paper argues the youth can still contribute to the agriculture sector by performing some infomediary roles. They can be mobilised to pass on rice farming information to farmers. In this paper, we look into how mobile phones are situated in the lives of the rural Filipino youth. From there, we analyse how the PhilRice Text Centre could effectively mobilise the Filipino youth to facilitate transfer of information on new rice farming technologies to their farmer parents. Practical recommendations on mobilising the youth as infomediaries are subsequently forwarded in this paper.