Eradication of Poverty through Agripreneurship

Cherrie De Erit Atilano is the Founding Farmer, President and CEO of AGREA; an agriculture-focused and for-purpose inclusive enterprise anchored on Ecology of Dignity. AGREA aims to develop a living model of a replicable "one island" economy, founded on sustainable agriculture, livelihood programs, environment, community-based tourism and quality education of the children of farmers and fishermen. She is also a co-founder of HATIENDA Holdings Inc., an agritourism and agriprocessing space to produce Filipino agricultural products for local and exports market. She started working with the farmers at the age of 12 by teaching them sustainable ways of farming that she read from a book. She graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor's degree in Agriculture, major in Horticulture specializing on tissue culture from the Visayas State University in Leyte. She was an exchange student in Zhejiang Gongshang University, and was awarded as an Excellent Exchange Student in contemporary culture and languages. She was a working student and a scholar of Negros Occidental – PAGKAON to finish her degree.

Young Agri-Mover

She was awarded one of the Ten Outstanding Students of the Philippines in 2007, as evidenced by her academic excellence, exemplary leadership, and strong social responsibilities. She is a Global Shaper of the World Economic Forum; an ambassador for Project Pagsulong – The One Million Youth Challenge on How to Alleviate Poverty; an ambassador for Earth Faces Campaign for Climate Change; and a Co-chairperson and Ambassador of the World Economic Forum - Global Shapers Community and United Nations Sustainability Development Council that started the Shapers Sustainability and Sustainability Sunday movement in 450+ City Hubs all over the world. She is also a member of the Transformation Leaders Network: A New Vision for Agriculture, a group of top decision makers, who annually gathers in Switzerland to create a vision for agriculture by 2050.

Because of her track record and advocacy to promote global food security and sustainable agriculture programs and helped thousands of farming families in the Philippines for almost 17 years, she was awarded as a Young Global Laureate 2014 by the International Youth Organization – Youth Action Net. She had the chance to meet the Holy See Papa Francesco in Vatican, Rome, Italy on November 19-20, 2014 for the gathering called "Towards a New Global Mindset: Overcoming Social and Economic Exclusion". She was named by Rappler Philippines as one of the Four Filipinas to Watch 2014. She was recognized as one of the Young Business Leader of the Asia-New Zealand Foundation 2015. She was recently awarded as a Young Outstanding Leaders for Others 2015 on Agriculture by the United Nations -International Youth Day and National Youth Commission. She was also recognized as a Peace Awardee 2015 by the Muslim community thru the SPMUDA International Organization during the International Day of Peace. She was chosen as one of the top Young Leaders in the Philippines to meet President Barrack Obama in a Townhall Meeting in Malaysia dated November 21, 2015.

Heart for people and planet

She was a volunteer consultant to the World Vision and Education Research and Development Assistance Foundation, Inc. (ERDA) to reduce exploitative child labor in 10 sugarcane producing Provinces in the Philippines. A volunteer and a fulltime worker of Gawad Kalinga for the past 7 years (2007 – 2014), mainly helping in the food sufficiency programs called Bayan-Anihan, where she helped in the establishment of 1,300 Community Farms around the Philippines impacting 60,000 families. She was also instrumental in the development of the GK Enchanted Farms as the center for social entrepreneurship. She was a visiting scientist and scholar in International Crop research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in Hyderabad, India as well as in Centro International dela Papa or International Potato Center (CIP) in Lima, Peru year 2014. She has been working as a consultant for the Department of Agrarian Reform to develop and implement the Agrarian Reform Community Connectivity Economic Support Services (ARCCESS) for 241 Farmer Cooperatives and Associations to avail inclusive agri-businesses and cooperative programs, and helped farmers have access to market, technologies, capacity building and multi- sectoral partners.

In 2016, she was awarded the EARTH Mover Award of RAPPLER, and one of The Outstanding Women in the Nation Service (TOWNS) 2016. TOWNS award is presented by the TOWNS Foundation to outstanding Filipino women ages 21 to 45 years old who have contributed positively to strengthening national capability and shaping the nation's future and served as catalysts for economic, social and cultural development, national security and national unity by providing their time, talent and resources. On the same year, she was also awarded as the Most Outstanding Young Agriculturist and Young Achiever of Negros Island.

Mission to redefine agriculture

Cherrie was chosen by Channel News Asia as one of the 10 Asia Next Generation Emerging Leaders (ANGELS) 2016. She was awarded as one of the Inspiring Filipina Entrepreneur 2017 by Philippine Center for Entrepreneurship (Go Negosyo), and the Republic of the Philippines President His Excellency Rodrigo Roa Duterte. She was also chosen by the Australia Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade as one of the Asia- Australia Emerging Leaders in the Region. She was also chosen as one of the awardees of Asia Society 2017.

She was awarded as one of the Asia Society 2017 Young Leaders. She was the first recipient of Women of the Future Southeast Asia Social Entrepreneur of the year 2018 in Singapore. She is an Advisory Member of the World Economic Forum Global Shapers Community Advisory Council Steering Committee, completing the 22 chosen young members of the World Economic Forum. She was recognized last ASEAN Summit 2017 as one of the Pioneer Mentors for ASEAN Mentorship for Entrepreneurship Network (AMEN).

AGREA as a company and her as the social entrepreneur was also awarded by the Asia Pacific CSR Council and UN Global Compact the Global Responsible Business Award 2017 for Agriculture Excellence. The first accredited and certified Farm School in the island-province of Marinduque by the Department of Agriculture – Agriculture Training Institute (DA-ATI) and Technical Educational Skills Development Authority. AGREA was also given Asian Impact Awardee 2018 by the National University of Singapore, Ashoka Singapore , and Asia Philanthropy Circle.

Cherrie represented the Philippines in United Nations General Assembly 2018, and as a Sustainability Expert of the World Economic Forum Sustainable Development Impact in New York. As a young founder, she was selected as a fellow in the Young Founders Program 2018 of Westerwelle Foundation, Berlin, Germany. She is also a Swedish Institute Management Program (SIMP) Fellow 2019 for Sustainable Business and Responsible Leadership.

Cherrie was given the first ASEAN Young Agri-preneur Award during the ASEAN Agriculture Summit in October 1, 2018. She was recognized by the Province of Negros Occidental as the youngest awardee for the Most Outstanding Negrosanon – Modern Hero Award, and Most Outstanding Agri-entrepreneur of 2018 by TOFARM Foundation and Junior Chamber International in November 2018. She was also selected as one of The Outstanding Young Men and Women of the Philippines (TOYM) 2018.

As part of AGREA Advocacy events, Cherrie designed and implemented GROW – a Leadership and Agripreneurship activities for the youth in war-stricken areas in Mindanao, Philippines, which was granted and supported by the US Department of State and US Embassy Manila Young Southeast Asian Leadership Initiative (YSEALI) for three years. GROW was able to empower and enable 98 youth to be agri-changemakers by implementing 17 agri-based programs. Al over Mindanao. She also launched the biggest and most innovative agri-event in the Philippines called the Leaders and Entrepreneurs in Agriculture Forum (LEAF), which was attended by 500+ most distinguished people in agriculture sector from more than 20 countries last September 29-30, 2018.

This 2019, Cherrie was appointed by the United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres to be a high-level ambassador of the UN Scaling Up Nutrition Movement Lead group. She is also an Advisory Board Member of the World Bank Solutions For Youth Employment (S4YE).

She is a radical optimist, a dreamer and a true believer that Filipino farmers are world-class. She has been traveling the world as an advocate and inspirational speaker especially on her advocacy for global food security.