Young Farmers’ Challenge (YFC) 2021 and 2022 provincial, regional, and national awardees from the Cordillera region gathered for the YFC Regional Summit on April 13 to 14 at Pooten Resort in Asin in Tuba, Benguet.
The Cordillera office of the Department of Agriculture (DA-CAR), through the Agribusiness and Marketing Assistance Division (AMAD), organized the two-day activity as a chance for the YFC provincial focal persons to present updates on the enterprise implementation of their grantees.
AMAD also facilitated orientations on effective business communication, Kapital Access for Young Agripreneurs (KAYA) loan, Registry System for Basic Services in Agriculture (RSBSA), and Farmers and Fisherfolks Enterprise Development Information System (FFEDIS).
Young farmers organization
The regional summit started with a meeting presided by YFC Club of the Philippines, Inc. (YFCI) Cordillera Ambassador Nick Loque. During the meeting, Loque recognized the need for the Cordillera grantees to form a civil society organization (CSO) to be accredited by the DA-CAR.
Because they did not realize their plan to form an organization last year, Loque reinstated the idea for its potential benefits.
In giving interventions, the DA-CAR prioritizes farmer cooperatives and associations (FCAs) that are accredited civil society organisations. Being fully accredited, according to Loque, will open them to other services of DA-CAR, like additional interventions from AMAD.
For this to happen, the YFCI Ambassador encouraged the young farmers to actively participate in any business and marketing-related activities of DA-CAR. He also encouraged his fellow awardees to submit the reports required by the agency.
Loque also prescribed the grantees to submit relevant data about their products, like shipping requirements and product shelf life. The data gathered would be the basis for what YFC products they would showcase at malls and in Metro Manila.
“We are privileged enough to be able to secure a booth at the Bonifacio Global City every Saturday. If you have good products that are suitable for the market, we can help you showcase them. That’s why we need to gather data from you to know what are your products and how would you ship them,” Loque explained to his fellow young farmers, adding that they also need to join seminars on packaging and product improvement so that they would meet the demands of the market.
YFC success
AMAD Marketing Specialist Ainie Pril Agaser shared the success of YFC implementation in the region. Aside from the conducted market linkage activities and business development seminars and orientations, the highlight of last year’s accomplishments was the actual number of YFC grantees.
In 2022, 56 out of 86 innovative business model canvases (BMCs) emerged victorious in the provincial-level competition. Among the provincial winners, only seven BMCs stood out and clinched the regional-level competition, securing a spot to represent the region in the national-level competition. Finally, from the seven BMCs, only three snatched the Best Youth Agribusiness Model, along with nine other awardees nationwide.
Due to the demand, AMAD held a second batch of the YFC competition across the region also last year. The second batch added 26 BMCs to the roster of YFC grantees in the Cordillera. Unlike the first batch, however, the second batch ended at the provincial-level only.
To further encourage the grantees to be an advocate for agriculture and food security, Regional Executive Director Cameron Odsey expressed his hopes to the young farmers to be a model in their own communities and to show their fellow youth that there is potential in venturing into agriculture.
“This (YFC) is one of the programs we hope to encourage more of the youth to realize that there is a future in agriculture. The reason that agriculture was not interesting in the past is because of how they viewed the work of the farmers. But with the present trends in agriculture, there is a possibility to engage in entrepreneurship, to go into business, and earn from agriculture,” Odsey remarked. By JBPeralta
