THE GOVERNMENT of Japan has approved about P60.687 million in funding for the "Enhancing Farmers’ Capacity to Access, Analyze and Utilize Statistical Information" project under the Japan Food Security Project for Underprivileged Farmers, formerly known as the 2KR Program, the Embassy of Japan in Manila said in a statement yesterday.
The project aims to raise farmers’ productivity, efficiency and income by improving their operational and financial management and planning skills through an information technology (IT)-based system.
This, in turn, will be achieved by setting up an agribusiness information service, which will include the training of farmers and staff of farmers’ organizations to use the data system the project will develop.
Project proponents are the Agriculture department and its attached agency, the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics.
The project, which will be implemented for the next three years, will involve various activities, including: designing an information service; provision of training for farmers; installation of support IT infrastructure for the project; establishment of an economic classification system for target beneficiary farmers and forging partnerships between government and nongovernment organizations.
It will also offer production and marketing analysis to farmers in the municipalities and barangays of target areas.
The project covers the provinces of Benguet, Ifugao, Mountain Province, Nueva Vizcaya, Palawan, Iloilo, Capiz, Cebu, Negros Oriental, Leyte, Misamis Oriental and Bukidnon.
It can expand to three areas located in the Central Visayas and Caraga (eastern Mindanao) regions.
"For many years, small farmers -- particularly those in remote rural areas -- have conducted their farming business on a hit-or-miss basis due to lack of adequate information related to production and marketing of their products," the statement read.
"Furthermore, lack of access to information, situational analysis, production planning and marketing decisions hindered them from achieving higher farm income," it added.
The 2KR is a key Japanese assistance program that has been running in the Philippines for the past 30 years, the statement said.
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