The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has allotted at least $38.75 million (P1.67 billion) for two major programs on food transformation in the Philippines.
The USDA said under its Food for Progress Program, it supports the Philippine Coffee Advancement and Farm Enterprise (PhilCAFE) and the B-Safe projects.
The PhilCAFE project is an investment in the coffee sector that leverages private and public capital to help put the country’s national coffee roadmap into action.
The roadmap aims to increase the production and exports of conventional and specialty coffee by building the capacity and expanding service provision of the coffee value chain.
The project has a budget of $25,446,430 to benefit an estimate of 70,250 individuals.
It involves the establishment of nurseries and aims to: strengthen retail input agents; increase the capacity of producer organizations as a critical link in the value chain; improve post-harvest handling and processing to maintain quality characteristics; facilitate agricultural lending to close the financing gaps; and facilitate linkages to specialty and conventional coffee buyers. – Jed Macapagal
