Partnership for Agro-Entrepreneurship. The MOU signing was held at the DOST-PCAARRD Innovation and Technology Center in the presence of (seated, from left): (place names in this sequence for easier read) JGF Executive Director Gisela Tiongson (seated, third from left); JGF Senior Program Manager Ma Laize Ar Cruzat (seated, fourth from left); DOST-PCAARRD Executive Director Dr. Reynaldo V. Ebora (seated, second from left); and DOST Undersecretary Leah J. Buendia (seated, first from left). Behind them are (can we make a generic description to acknowledge the other people in the photo).
A Memorandum of Understanding was recently signed by the Department of Science and Technology’s Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic, and Natural Resources Research and Development (DOST-PCAARRD) and Jollibee Group Foundation (JGF), the company’s social development arm. The agreement aims to strengthen both parties’ work on enhancing smallholder producers’ entrepreneurial capacity and connecting them to agriculture value chains.
“This partnership is an important milestone for farmer entrepreneurs. PCAARRD’s expertise in research and development in agriculture will surely help create access to more technologies that can enhance farmers’ livelihood to become more profitable,” said Gisela Tiongson, executive director of JGF.
Through the exchange of technology, access to knowledge, and the provision of tools to increase productivity, the partnership between DOST-PCAARRD and JGF seeks to support the advancement of sustainable agricultural practices. Additionally, it seeks to enhance R&D initiatives in order to provide scientific and technology-based solutions for agri-aqua businesses. For the purpose of ensuring the success of agro-enterprises, the program also incorporates networking and market links.
Of this, DOST-PCAARRD Executive Director Dr. Reynaldo V. Ebora said, “We believe that this partnership for agro-entrepreneurship will strengthen PCAARRD’s efforts in addressing technology gaps to improve quality and productivity, as well as in building the capacities of farmer groups and partner LGUs to provide opportunities to tap institutional markets. We are also certain that this will pave the way to strengthen the implementation of projects and activities with the end goal of achieving JGF’s mission and PCAARRD’s mandates.”
Additionally, this program supports JGF’s Farmer Entrepreneurship Program (FEP), which empowers smallholder farmers and aids them in developing their technical and business acumen as well as their capacity for forming partnerships. FEP works with farmer cooperatives that supply the Jollibee Group and other markets using the Agro-Enterprise Clustering Approach.
More than 9,000 metric tons of veggies, worth more than P360 million in total sales, are provided to the company by 18 farmer organizations authorized by the Jollibee Group to date.
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