Regional agri-enterprise winners of the 2022 Young Farmers Challenge (Photo Courtesy: Department of Agriculture)
QUEZON CITY, (PIA) -- The Department of Agriculture (DA) is set to begin the acceptance of applications for the 2023 Young Farmers Challenge (YFC) Program on September 28.
The YFC is a competitive start-up program aimed at providing financial grant assistance to youth who engage in the establishment of agri-fishery enterprises with viability and profitability potential.
Since its launch in 2021, the YFC was able to provide a sum of P149.25 million start-up capital funds for 2,955 young farmers.
In addition to financial grant, the DA, through the Agribusiness and Marketing Assistance Service (AMAS), also provides a series of Business Development Services in an effort to ensure that the young farmers will further grow their agribusinesses by means of receiving the necessary coaching and mentoring, local and international product expositions, as well as assistance to the business registration process.
For 2023, the YFC Program aims to produce a total of 546 new generation of young farmers who can help the country achieve a food-secure future for all Filipinos.
The said program will primarily have two (2) newly added components which are the YFC Upscale and the YFC Intercollegiate Competition.
In particular, the YFC Upscale program component is a head-to-head business pitch competition with a financial grant amounting to P300,000 for each regional winner and P500,000 for each national winner.
This is open to all previous YFC awardees who aspire to scale up or expand the operations of their current agribusinesses through the integration of new technologies, market platforms, product development ideas, and employment opportunities.
The YFC Intercollegiate Competition, on the other hand, will serve as a Business Model Canvas-based contest among students in State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) who are taking up courses related to agriculture.
Meanwhile, the regional counterpart of the Intercollegiate Competition targets the participation of sophomore students from SUCs that are accredited by the Commision on Higher Education (CHED) as well as the members of the Philippine Association of State Universities and Colleges (PASUC). Each of the winning enterprises from SUCs is set to receive a financial grant worth P150,000.
The 2023 YFC is principally sponsored by the Office of Senator Imee Marcos in close cooperation with the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) to empower the food production sector.
The DA also partnered with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Department of Science and Technology (DOST), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and other concerned national government agencies for the efficient implementation of the program.
Interested applicants are encouraged to pre-register here.
For more information regarding the application process, the DA-AMAS can be contacted at (632) 8920-2216, 8920-4072-73, 8920-4077, and 8926-8203, or through yfc.amas@gmail.com. (DA-AMAS/PIA-NCR)
