On September 28, 2023, the Department of Agriculture (DA), through the Agribusiness and Marketing Assistance Service (AMAS) in collaboration with the office of Senator Imee R. Marcos and the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), will launch the Young Farmers Challenge (YFC) Program. Senator Imee R. Marcos will grace the event as the principal sponsor of the program.
The DA’s YFC Program, now in its third year, has provided P149.25 million in start-up capital funds for 2,955 young farmers to implement agribusiness ventures.
Aside from the capital grants, the DA-AMAS also provides various Business Development Services to ensure that the young ones will continue and upscale their respective operations. It will be made possible through coaching and mentoring, local and international product expositions, and assistance with business registrations, among other approaches.
For this year, the YFC program has two new components: the YFC Upscale and the YFC Intercollegiate Competition. It is open to all previous YFC awardees aspiring to scale up their current agribusiness operations by investing in new technologies, including product development, improving marketing platforms, and generating employment, among other innovations.
The YFC Upscale is a head-to-head business pitch competition with a financial grant of P300,000 for each regional winner and P500,000 for each national winner.
This year, the DA will also engage students taking agriculture and related courses in the State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) to participate in the YFC Intercollegiate Competition component, which will be a Business Model Canvas-based Competition.
The program will help students transform their ideas into profitable agribusiness ventures by training them to improve their skills and knowledge as agripreneurs and professional farmer business owners.
The YFC Regional Intercollegiate Competition targets SUCs accredited by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and Philippine Association of State Universities and Colleges (PASUC) members. It is open to all sophomore students who have business ideas with viability potential. Each winning SUC enterprise per region will be awarded a financial grant of P150,000 as start-up capital.
For 2023, the DA YFC Program-Start Up targets a total of 546 new breeds of young farmers to take part in ensuring the country’s food security.
To ensure the efficient and effective program implementation, the DA also partnered with different government agencies, including the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), among others.
For more information on how to join this year’s YFC, please call the DA-AMAS through telephone numbers (632) 8920.2216, 8920.4072-73, 8920.4077, and 8926.8203, email at yfc.amas@gmail.com, or visit agribusiness.da.gov.ph and www.facebook.com/Agri.AMAS.