When Dheben Jean T. Alvarez was still in college, her parents faced a heartbreaking decision. To keep her in school, they pawned the family’s 0.7-hectare farmland in Barangay Violanta, Loreto, Agusan del Sur—the same land that had sustained them for years.
For her parents, it was an act of love and faith, a gamble that their daughter’s education would one day bring stability and pride to the family. For Dheben, it became a vow. She promised herself that she would study hard, succeed, and reclaim the land that meant so much to them.
What she didn’t know then was that her path to fulfilling this promise would not be through the glowing screens of information technology, but through the sun-drenched fields of agriculture.
From Computer Labs to Rice Fields
In 2024, opportunity came knocking. Dheben was accepted as part of the very first batch of interns in the Youth Internship Program on Organic Agriculture (YIPOA). Assigned to the San Isidro Parish Binucayan Area Farmers Multi-Purpose Cooperative (SIPBAFAMCO), she traded her computer mouse for a hand trowel, her classroom for the rice paddies.
For nine months, she immersed herself in the rhythms of farm life: planting rice, tending gardens, feeding pigs, and harvesting vegetables. It was grueling work, but with every sunrise and every muddy step in the field, she began to see farming not as a fallback, but as a future.
YIPOA, funded by the Department of Agriculture’s National Organic Agriculture Program and implemented by the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI), wasn’t just about teaching youth how to farm. It was about empowering them to become agripreneurs—equipped not only with skills, but with vision, business plans, and start-up support.
The program, which started in 2023, runs for 21 months and remains ongoing. Since its launch, it has trained three batches of interns: 11 in the first batch, 6 in the second, and 11 in the third, totaling 28 interns. Its structure provides a ₱5,000 monthly allowance during the first nine months of internship, followed by a ₱150,000 start-up capital in the second year for the one-year implementation of the interns’ organic agriculture projects. After this period, successful interns whose projects are evaluated positively receive an additional ₱120,000 from ATI as further support. In total, a young farmer can receive as much as ₱315,000 in assistance, provided their enterprise proves viable.
For Dheben, it was life-changing.
Reclaiming What Was Lost
Armed with knowledge and determination, Dheben went back to her family’s land with one mission: to reclaim it.
She saved her ₱10,000 monthly allowance from the internship. She reinvested her earnings from two cropping seasons. She lived frugally, always with the image of her parents’ pawned land driving her forward.
At just 24, she achieved what once seemed impossible—she bought back the farmland her parents had sacrificed. “It was the happiest moment of my life,” she recalls, her eyes lighting up. “I felt I was finally able to give back to my parents, and also to myself.”
Recognizing her grit, YIPOA awarded her a ₱150,000 start-up fund to grow her farm further. For Dheben, it was more than money—it was a seal of confidence in her ability to thrive.
Staying for Family, Staying for the Land
Like many young Filipinos, Dheben once considered working abroad. With her degree in Information Technology, she could have pursued opportunities overseas, earning more than farming could immediately provide.
But she chose differently.
“I realized I would be leaving behind my two children, my husband, and the farm that I worked so hard to build,” she says. “I knew then that my future was here.”
Her organic rice farm now earns around ₱50,000 per cropping season. Together with her husband, who takes charge of the heavy labor, she also manages a sari-sari store, raises livestock and poultry, sells coconut wine (tuba), and cultivates vegetables. These ventures bring in up to ₱30,000 a month—proof that farming, when managed wisely, can sustain a family.
Leading the Organic Way
But income is not Dheben’s only measure of success. Her bigger victory lies in transforming her family’s mindset.
She convinced her parents to leave behind conventional methods and shift fully to organic farming. Today, her rice fields are ringed with buffer zones of cassava, lemongrass, string beans, napier grass, and madre de cacao—protecting crops from contamination while nourishing the soil. A filter pond ensures clean water flows into her tilapia fishpond, creating a balanced ecosystem where everything supports each other.
Her farm has become a small showcase of sustainability, a quiet classroom for neighbors curious about organic methods. At just 25, she now serves as Chairperson of the Credit Curriculum in SIPBAFAMCO, guiding others in the same cooperative that once trained her.
An Inspiration to the Youth
For the youth, Dheben’s story carries a message: your course does not dictate your destiny. She may have studied IT, but her greatest achievements bloomed in the fields of agriculture.
Her journey shows that farming is not a life of hardship, but a life of possibility—where sacrifice can turn into opportunity, where sustainability can walk hand in hand with profitability, and where a young woman can reclaim her family’s land and legacy through sheer willpower.
The YIPOA program itself proves that farming can be a viable path for young people. With structured training, a ₱5,000 monthly allowance during internship, a ₱150,000 start-up fund, and up to ₱120,000 additional support after a successful first year, a dedicated young farmer can access as much as ₱315,000 in assistance. Programs like these show that agriculture is not just about planting crops—it’s about planting futures.
“Farming is not just about planting rice,” she says with quiet pride. “It’s about planting dreams, nurturing them, and watching them grow.”
And that is exactly what Dheben Jean Alvarez has done—turning sacrifice into triumph, and showing an entire generation that the future of farming can be both sustainable and full of promise.
Contributed article by Mr. Vic Thor Palarca of ATI-CARAGA