Despite Jason’s father, Victoriano I. Tagupa, being involved in organic farming for 30 years at the time, he never imposed his beliefs on Jason, or influenced his career decisions. That is why he was supportive of Jason when he did not choose to work on the farm but instead in a financial institution. After his studies, Jason decided to work at a bank for 3 and a half years, and at an accounting firm for 1 year. He worked for five years before he decided it was not the career path for him, nor did he find it as fulfilling as he had imagined it would be.

In 2018, he quit his job at the bank and decided to go back home to his family in Balingasag, Misamis Oriental, in the Philippines. As Jason was trying to work out what kind of job to do and which career path to take, he started helping out more at his family’s farm which by now had grown to have activities that engaged with the community members. It was during this time that he attended the 3rd Organic Asia Congress and Rice conferences in Bislig City, Surigao Del Sur.

“I volunteered to help out and was the assistant project officer for the whole event . I learnt so much about the world of organic on a global level which inspired me so much. After the congress, I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to become an organic farmer!”, reflects Jason.

Knowing that he would have the support of his family, Jason started to not only learn more from his family about organic farming, but also read more and tried to apply his findings. The family has an organic farm with an average size of 1.5 hectares where vegetables and other foods are grown. However,  since it is a certified farm school, the main focus is providing training.  Jason’s parents, together with a team of other organic farmers, have been facilitating the training of students on how to organically farm rice, raise chickens, and many others, thanks to support from the government of the Philippines.

So far, they have trained 165 students in the community on various activities ranging from growing organic vegetables and rice, to making organic fertilisers and raising chickens. The courses for these are three to eleven days, all the way up to 17 weeks, depending on what the students choose to learn at a time. Depending on  what they learn, Jason is in charge of creating and organising the necessary documents to ensure that the students get a certificate upon completion of training.