WV youths urged to pass proposals for Kabataang Agribiz funding

Seventy-four youths from the different provinces of Western Visayas who took part in the Business Model Canvas (BMC) orientation on May 24, 2021 are encouraged to send market-driven project proposals for the Kabataang Agribiz Program before June 15.

Rhea Christina G. Resol, program focal person of the Department of Agriculture (DA) Western Visayas said, “your project proposals should be profitable, sustainable, and viable. Your agribusiness project should not depend on grants or subsidies alone. It means that your enterprise can thrive even after the project duration.”

The Kabataang Agribiz Competitive Grant Assistance Program is said to be one of the government’s actions to address the declining number of farmworkers and the aging population of farmers.

“As part of the OneDA Reform Agenda, we are to transform Philippine agriculture by encouraging and soliciting support from the youths. Today, most youths prefer to work abroad, go in the IT industry, and other white-collar jobs,” said DA Western Visayas Regional Executive Director Remelyn R. Recoter.

She added that in the 700,000 Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture (RSBSA)-listed farmers in Region 6, 44.11 percent ages over 50 years old.

“Through this Kabataang Agribiz, we want to harness the skills and encourage the youths to get involved in agriculture not only in manual labor but also in digital agriculture such as the use or operations of drones in farming,” Recoter said.

Youths who pre-registered in the program age 18 to 30 years old, natural-born Filipino, and can either be in or out of school. The agency prefers the applicants who have formal or non-formal education and training in agri-fishery and must implement related enterprises gearing to advance the sector.

The applicants have to submit a BMC as a major requirement in the program alongside 2×2 size ID photographs, valid IDs (with clear photo and birthday indicated), and training certificates to agribizawards2021.amadRFO6@gmail.com.

As a tool that concretizes business ideas into a cohesive strategy, the BMC shall contain nine segments: value proposition, customer segments, marketing channels, customer relationships, key resources, key activities, key partners, cost structure, and revenue streams.

“Come up with detailed and close to reality estimates of resources and materials in your BMC considering the current prices. We recommend to you to start small. In the next few years, we can plan on how to expand it. Let us not compromise the sustainability of your proposed projects,” Resol told.

Interested applicants—individual or group-can generate proposals for crops, livestock and fishery production, trading, processing, integrated farming, and agricultural technology or innovation.

Based on the program guidelines, the DA targets 1,300 workable proposals nationwide as winners at the provincial level, and each shall receive P50,000.00 prizes to fund the projects.

Three enterprises shall be selected as winners in every region with a P150,000.00 project grant. Then the best six agribusiness projects will be awarded P300,000.00 each as national winners.

DA’s Agribusiness and Marketing Assistance Division Chief Maria Teresa T. Solis advised the youths to prepare project proposals based on their interests and inclinations.

“This pandemic time, we saw the importance of our farmers in securing and sustaining food production for the community despite the restrictions,” she added. (Sheila Mae H. Toreno/DA-RAFIS-6)