The government is looking to help over 500 young farmers to start their own agribusiness ventures this year.

In a statement Tuesday, the DA said its expanded Young Farmers Challenge (YFC) Program under its Agribusiness and Marketing Assistance Service (AMAS) is helping 546 new young agriculturalists to venture in agribusiness in 2023.

For this year, the YFC Program is set to be launched by the department in collaboration with the office of Senator Imee Marcos and the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) on Sept. 28.

“The DA’s YFC Program, now on its third year, has provided a total of PHP149.25 million start capital funds for 2,955 young farmers to implement their own agribusiness ventures,” it said.

“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 through coaching and mentoring, local and international product expositions, and assistance with business registrations, among others,” the DA added.

The DA said this year’s YFC program has two new components –the YFC Upscale and the YFC Intercollegiate Competition.

“This 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 others. The YFC Upscale is a head-to-head business pitch competition with a financial grant of PHP300,000 for each regional winner and PHP500,000 for each national winner,” it added.

The DA would also engage students taking up agriculture and related courses in state universities and colleges (SUCs) for 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,” it said.

The YFC Regional Intercollegiate Competition targets SUCs that are accredited by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and members of the Philippine Association of State Universities and Colleges (PASUC).

“This is open to all sophomore students who have business ideas with viability potential. Each winning SUC enterprise per region will be awarded with a financial grant of PHP150,000 as start-up capital,” it said.

To ensure the efficient and effective program implementation, the DA also partnered with different government agencies including the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Department of Science and Technology (DOST), Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), among others.

For more information on this year’s YFC, applicants may 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 https://www.facebook.com/Agri.AMAS. (PNA)