Banking on the innovativeness and aggressive drive of the youth, the Department of Agriculture (DA) launched the “Kabataang Agribiz Grant Assistance Program” to provide the young Filipinos a financial aid to support them in establishing enterprises focused on crop and livestock production, fisheries, trading, processing, integrated farming, agricultural technology and similar endeavors.
The Kabataang Agribiz, developed through the guidance of Agriculture Secretary William Dar with the support of Senator Imee Marcos, aims to give the younger generation a push to enable them to put up ventures in line with agricultural development and food production.
According to Dar, the new thinking of the Filipino youth will definitely make agriculture sustainable.
“The new program seeks to usher back the youth to agriculture.”
The agriculture chief added that the new program seeks to usher back the youth to agriculture, and engage them in activities and processes related to farming and fishing.
“The young people chose to leave rural areas to pursue more lucrative jobs on commercial centers. Upang masolusyunan ang problemang ito, gumawa ang DA ng program para sa kabataang Pilipino upang makapagsimula sila ng kanilang agribusiness sa production, value-adding, innovation, at iba pa,” the agriculture head stressed.
The program, which has a total grant value of P74,000,000, is open to all interested natural-born Filipino youth ages 18-30, who must be ready and willing to engage in agriculture and fishery business enterprise.
Both in and out of school youth applicants will be entertained, however, those with experience and related training informal or non-formal settings will be preferred.
Groups and associations are also encouraged to join provided that they meet the qualifications set by DA.
Qualified applicants must send their Business Model Canvas (BMC) with potential profit to the Agribusiness and Marketing Assistance Service of the DA Central Office and to the Agribusiness and Marketing Assistance Division in the regional offices.
To ensure that the applicants will comply with the requirements, AMAS and ATI will hold a virtual orientation for BMC preparation.
“We will give them assistance every step of the way.”
“The main objective of this initiative is to encourage and motivate the young Filipinos to go back into farming and so we want to ensure that we give them assistance every step of the way,” Agribusiness and Marketing Assistant Secretary Kristine Evangelista said.
The following are the respective awards to be received by the youth awardees per stages of competition:
Provincial – P50,000.00 per enterprise
Regional – P150,000.00 per enterprise
National – P300,000.00 per enterprise
The grant will serve as start-up capital for the proposed micro-enterprise which will be implemented by the youth awardees.
Marcos, a staunch supporter and implementer of various projects for the development of the youth, stressed that agriculture is the solution in ensuring that the country will have access to safe, affordable, and nutritious food.
As such, the lady senator encouraged the younger generation to submit unique business plans that are innovative and add value, whether in production, processing, marketing, and even in modernized technologies.
“Ipakita po natin na ang kabataan na ang pag-asa ng pagsasaka, at ng sambayanang Filipino,” she concluded.