GENERAL SANTOS CITY (PIA) -- “I think if we work really hard and do the right thing, the Region 12 farmers and fisherfolk, you could be the good news in agriculture because you are the exporters of food, you are the future of farming in the Philippines,” said Senator Imee R. Marcos during her visit here on March 12.

Having expressed confidence in the many potentials of the city, Marcos hopes that the government will focus its development efforts on agri-fishery production and processing in General Santos.

Senator Marcos met with young farmers of Soccsksargen whom she is supporting under her brainchild program, the Young Farmers Challenge (YFC) implemented by the Department of Agriculture's Agribusiness and Marketing Assistance Service at SM City General Santos, to reaffirm her all-out support to this sectoral group that is into agri-fishery enterprises.

Expressing her delight to meet the young farmers, Marcos chatted joyfully with them and asked about the progress of their respective enterprise ventures.

The region “has been one of the best of the project areas. You have produced national and regional champions and it’s really a joy to hear the kids here…. na talagang very digital na and ready for export,” Senator Marcos told the young farmers, government officials from the city government, DA XII and Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) XII, among other program beneficiaries.

She then emphasized the importance of food products produced by young farmers “because Metro Manila needs food, whereas in Gensan we all know that you’re exporting food, so it’s very difficult to send the food all the way from Gensan to Metro Manila,” acknowledging, though, the difficulty in transporting food to Metro Manila as one of the “issues that we need to encounter.”

Her interaction with the young farmers brought together some 20 YFC awardees in the region, who each had the opportunity to present and describe to Senator Marcos their passion products and how the YFC fund has been able to sustain these projects.

YFC has been Marcos' project since 2021. It provides funds to the youth who are interested in engaging in agri-fishery business profitability projects in the form of a "competitive financial grant," which will serve as start-up capital for the proposed project that can be operated either by an individual youth or as a group.

For the 2022 challenge, the group enterprise named Green Banana Flour: The Next Superfood from Brgy. San Isidro, General Santos City, became a national awardee in the processing category, winning a total grant of P550,000 with the initial release of P250,000 already.

The call for this year’s round of YFC has already started, said DA XII YFC focal Leah Magaway, adding that they hope to receive by March 24 the endorsement of entries composed of individual or group enterprises from the provincial governments of South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Cotabato, and Sarangani, including the city government of General Santos.

She said there are 27 entries, as follows: six enterprises from each of the four provinces and three from General Santos City will vie for the regional competition, from which they will select seven regional winners that will then compete at the national level.

Meanwhile, Senator Marcos also acknowledged the General Santos City Food Terminal Multi-Purpose Cooperative, which she described as a partner or “suki of KADIWA, so we will continue buying from them and helping them.”

KADIWA is a model marketing initiative of DA that empowers the farmers to earn more by selling directly their fresh produce to consumers, reducing the cost of marketing, and making the farm products affordable and accessible to consumers.

The cooperative also apprised the senator of the assistance that it received from DA’s Enhanced Kadiwa Financial Grant Program, the Philippine Rural Development Project, among others.

Marcos also told Mayor Lorelie Geronimo-Pacquiao that “I feel that in terms of tourism, Gensan could be very promising in the area of sports tourism because you have the most viable sports brand in the world.”

She also led the ceremonial distribution of P3 million in aid to 1,000 women beneficiaries who received P3,000 each under the Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations in keeping with the observance of National Women’s Month this March. (CTA/PIA SarGen)