Philippines kicks off Japan-funded capacity-building agricultural project

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines has kicked off a two-year capacity building project for farmers funded by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan.

The Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) is implementing the project entitled “Strengthening Farmers’ Competitiveness through Capability Building of Vegetable Growers in the Province of Benguet.”

The project is the Philippines’ proposal under the Capacity Building Project for the Farmer’s Organizations to Support the Development of Food Value Chain in ASEAN Countries (CBF Project) by the ASEAN Project Management Team (PMT), and funded by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan.

The Philippines’ CBF project, which will run from 2022 to 2024, aims to strengthen the potential of farm clusters in Mankayan, Benguet to engage in farm business enterprise and improve their income.

These shall be done through the conduct of learning activities for the three selected farmer-cooperatives and associations (FCAs), provision of technical support, and linking of clustered FCAs to institutional buyers.

The project aims to encourage  FCAs to venture into agro-enterprising, and eventually have a marketing agreement with an institutional buyer.

The Jollibee Group Foundation (JGF) is one of the prospective institutional buyers of the project.

The CBF Steering Committee recently met with JGF executive director Gisela Tiongson and senior program manager Leo Cortez to introduce the project and for the JGF to discuss their accreditation requirements.

Established in 2004, the JGF and several clustered farmers have been their long-time accredited suppliers for a decade. Both parties are looking forward to the successful implementation of the project.