MANILA (LiCAS News): Bishop Gerardo Alminaza of San Carlos, president of Caritas Philippines, said the challenges facing the country’s rural communities are not merely economic, but also moral. He urged greater support for family farm schools, as climate change, poverty, and migration place increasing pressure on farmers and their families.
Bishop Alminaza made his appeal via video message to a forum of the Pilipinas Association of Rural Families for Education and Development [PARFED] the national federation of Family Farm Schools in the Philippines.
PARFED promotes an educational model that integrates classroom teaching, practical farm work, entrepreneurship, and community life, helping to prepare rural youth and farming families for sustainable agriculture and community development.
“These are not only economic concerns. They are moral concerns. They challenge us to ask what kind of society we are building and whose future we are protecting,” Bishop Alminaza said.
The bishop said the Church must help create conditions that allow rural families to remain on their land and see a future in agriculture, rather than responding only when communities are already in crisis.
These are not only economic concerns. They are moral concerns. They challenge us to ask what kind of society we are building and whose future we are protecting
Bishop Alminaza
“Our mission is not only to respond when people are already in need. We must also help create conditions where families can remain on their land with dignity, where young people can see hope in agriculture, and where communities can shape their own future,” he said.
Bishop Alminaza praised PARFED for sustaining the Family Farm School model, saying it forms young people who remain connected to their communities while preparing for productive work.
“You have shown that education is not only about preparing young people for employment. It is about forming persons who know their roots, love their communities, and recognise that the land entrusted to them is both a gift and a responsibility,” he said.
The bishop noted that the model teaches young people “that agriculture is not simply a means of survival but a vocation that serves the common good.”
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He said, “Those who cultivate the land also help nourish our nation.”
Bishop Alminaza said rural communities continue to face mounting challenges.
“Climate change has made farming more uncertain. Many families struggle to earn a decent living. Many young people leave their hometowns because they no longer see a future in agriculture,” he said.
Quoting Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’, the bishop stressed that environmental degradation and rural poverty cannot be separated.
“Farmers understand this reality perhaps more deeply than anyone else. When the land suffers, families suffer. When forests disappear, when water becomes scarce, when harvests fail, entire communities carry the burden,” he said.
