DA CHIEF ENCOURAGES ‘AGRIPRENEURSHIP‘
Farming and fisheries should be treated as business undertakings and that the private sector should be engaged in investing and setting-up agri-based industries and developing markets for agricultural products
Agriculture Secretary William Dar has embarked on a program seeking to make farmers not just crop planters or growers but entrepreneurs as well.
The planned “agripreneurship” program, seeks to boost the country’s food security and enhance farmer incomes by giving them access to non-bank rural financial institution (RFI) funding, training and technical support.
To achieve this, the DA-attached agency Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC) has forged a partnership with the Philippine Center for Entrepreneurship (PCE)-Go Negosyo, Kennemer Foods International Inc. and Agronomika Finance Corp. (AFC) to create an agricultural value chain financing program.
The Agricultural Support and Capacity Building thru Entrepreneurship and Organizational Development (ASCEnD) program aims to stimulate the adoption of agricultural value chain financing (AVCF) by RFI and underscore its practicality to farmers.
Through ASCEnD, farmers, fishers and agribusiness entrepreneurs participating in agriculture value chains can have better and easier access to RFI.
Once the new financing scheme is in place, non-bank RFI, including cooperatives, farmers’ associations, and other private organizations will provide capacity building assistance and technical support to small farmers, fishers and other agripreneurs. The training is designed to boost their capacity and enable them to participate in the value chain.
Loans will be granted to eligible small farmers and agribusiness entrepreneurs and their organizations. The necessary credit enhancements such as agriculture insurance and credit guarantee for agricultural value chain financing (AVCF) will also be made available to the participating smallholders and non-bank RFI, respectively.
“Farming and fisheries should be treated as business undertakings and that the private sector should be engaged in investing and setting-up agri-based industries and developing markets for agricultural products,” Dar said.
According to him, the “new thinking” also involves the development of Philippine agriculture through the creation of a framework for the digitization of farming and agribusiness activities where “credit is made available, affordable and accessible.”
ASCEnD is also projected as a “learning platform” for banks and nonbank RFI to engage in AVCF, as well as for ACPC and other government agencies involved in developing and supporting agriculture value chains.
A toolkit on AVCF financing will be established based on the experiences of the participating non-bank RFI.