THE Department of Agriculture (DA) said it developed a grant program that will provide capital to farm cooperatives.
In a statement, the DA said the program, known as the Enhanced Kadiwa Financial Grant, will fund purchases of supplies and equipment to enable direct selling to consumers. Covered items include packing equipment, delivery trucks, and vegetable crates.
The program can also serve as a revolving fund for assemblers and consolidators of fresh produce.
“The program also makes fresh produce more affordable by cutting out the layers of traders. Through the Enhanced Kadiwa Financial Grant, the cooperatives are also capacitated to take on more roles in the food supply chain, thus increasing their income,” the DA said.
The grant program has funding of P250 million and is part of the DA’s Kadiwa ni Ani at Kita marketing initiative linking producers directly to consumers.
The DA said the Kadiwa program has sold P6.5 billion worth of agricultural commodities, benefiting nearly 2 million households in the National Capital Region since the start of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
An estimated 23,294 individual farmers and fishers and 4,453 agri-fishery cooperatives have benefited from this program, the DA said. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave
