Bayer program trains women on farm financial management

MANILA, Philippines — As women play a bigger role in the agricultural supply chain, Bayer Philippines Inc. has launched a program with the Asia Society for Social Improvement and Sustainable Transformation (ASSIST) to train women farmers on family planning, farmer self-care, and basic farm financial management.

The program called Bayer Kubo was initiated with ASSIST in Brgy. Cabanbanan, Manaoag, Pangasinan where its Bayer Learning Center is located.

The Bayer Learning Center is a venue for farmers in the community where they can learn best practices and see the latest solutions available for vegetable production.

Through Bayer Kubo, Bayer Philippines will run capability and capacity building programs for smallholder farmers combining health and agriculture by tackling family planning, self-care and nutrition, as well as agri-oriented financial management and best practices.

This will allow women farmers and farmers’ wives to get expert-led training on family planning, farmer self-care, and basic farm financial management.

“This Bayer Kubo is where Bayer in the Philippines is bringing together our three divisions: Consumer Health, Pharmaceuticals, and Crop Science under one program to support our farmers,” Bayer Philippines Inc. managing director and country division head for pharmaceuticals Angel Michael Evangelista said.

“With the growing role of women in Philippine agriculture, who face competing demands to care for their families while ensuring they contribute to farm work and productivity, we aim to support women farmers and farmers’ wives’ through health, wellness, and sustainable agricultural practices –contributing to Bayer’s vision of “Health for all, Hunger for none,” he said.

Through the pilot program, Bayer Philippines and ASSIST aim to empower over 100 women farmers as Community Champions that will ensure continued knowledge sharing and capacity building to train additional 1,500 community members on the best practices of family planning, farmer self-care, and smallholder farmer support.

“As ASSIST moves forward in this partnership with Bayer Philippines, we will remain committed to creating more capacity-building opportunities that fit the needs of the women farming communities in Manaoag, Pangasinan,” ASSIST executive director Francis Macatulad said.

“We acknowledge that other farming communities would greatly benefit from our intervention. As such, we hope to replicate the Bayer Kubo program in other farming communities and locations in the Philippines,” he said.

The Bayer Kubo is Bayer Philippines’ local corporate social engagement (CSE) program that started out by encouraging and supporting communities to grow their own produce while encouraging an integrated, holistic approach to growing nutritional food using responsible agricultural practices.

To date, Bayer Philippines has established three Bayer Kubo across different communities: in Ususan, Taguig; in Calauan, Laguna; and in Payatas, Quezon City in partnership with NGOs such as Rise Against Hunger and AGREA.