A Japanese non-government organization has signed a grant project to help boost the agricultural income of micro-scale rice farmers in Northern Luzon by improving their farm management skills, the Embassy of Japan in the Philippines announced Friday.
Japanese Ambassador Kazuhide Ishikawa and Rie Minamoto, project manager of GLM Institute (GLMi), signed the grant contract for the P17-million project.
The funding, US$349,066 in total, is coursed through the Grant Assistance for Japanese NGO projects, a grant funding program of Japan’s Official Development Assistance.
“In Northern Luzon, known as good productive site of rice in the Philippines, there are many micro-scale rice farmers who manage only around 0.5 hectare of less-productive farmland,” said Ishikawa. “They sustain to make their living through income from their own farm as well as one-day labor for planting and cultivating in other farms.”
To help Northern Luzon farmers overcome poverty by improving their farming, the government of Japan funded GLMi’s project, which started last year. It consists of capacity building for management, making a production plan, learning effective ways to fertilize lands and to remove pests, as well as support for improvement and rehabilitation of farm roads.
The Grant Assistance for Japanese NGO Projects started in the Philippines in 2002. Since then, the Japanese government has made contracts for 45 projects in the country, with funding reaching a total of 960 million yen (approximately P403 million).
“Japan believes that this project will strengthen not only friendship between the peoples of Japan and the Philippines, but also the existing strategic partnership between Japan and the Philippines,” Ishikawa said.