History has just been written by the Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC) holding the first-ever “Agribusiness Pitch Challenge,” one of the competitions featured during the “1st Youth in Agriculture Summit” sponsored by the ACPC, which is under the Department of Agriculture (DA).
The Summit was held 11-12 May; in the Facebook post, ANN (Author Not Named) explains the nature of the competition:
(The Agribusiness Pitch Challenge aimed) to encourage the youth to engage in agriculture, fishery (or) agribusiness ventures. The initiative also (aimed) to ensure the continuous creation of investible ideas and start-up originators that will contribute to enhancing the DA’s food security objectives.
The DA has been encouraging the youth to come up with fundable agribusiness projects via the “Kapital Access for Young Agripreneurs” (KAYA) program. Why the youth? Secretary of Agriculture William Dar said during the virtual launch of the Agriculture Students Association of the Philippines (ASAP) Youth[1]: “The KAYA targets the youth because we acknowledge that they can be key players in ensuring affordability and availability of food supply.”
The Agribusiness Pitch Challenge drew a total of 160 young agripreneurs – yaggies – with individual pitches. ANN says, The panel of judges, who “acted as venture capitalists, investors, and business executives during the competition,” was composed of DA Undersecretary Waldo Carpio, Assistant Secretary Jane Bacayo, Assistant Secretary Liza Battad who is also the Executive Director of the Philippine Council for Agriculture and Fisheries (PCAF), and Deputy Director Rosana Mula of the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) – both PCAF and ATI are agencies of the DA.
The Selection Committee was composed of representatives from the ACPC’s Advocacy, Programs Development and Communications & Public Affairs Divisions. Committee Chair was ACPC Executive Director Jocelyn Alma Badiola.
Of the applicants, the top 3 young agripreneurs (yaggies) with promising KAYA proposals were asked to pitch their concepts before a panel of experts.
The grand winner of a yaggie was 28-year old Daryl Gumacal of Agusan del Sur. His winning pitch was on the subject of “Red Tilapia Nursery And Grow Out,” taking home the grand prize of P40,000. The inaugural-winning yaggie has a 7-year background in integrated farming.
John Lester Arellaga, a 22-year old student from Palawan, was the 2nd place yaggie and went home with a P25,000 cash prize. His pitch was on “Vermiculture Integration.” His background is Agricultural & Biosystems Engineering.
Jernet Lago, a 26-year old Agriculture student of Negros Oriental, was the 3rdplace yaggie with her presentation on “Sustainable Production of Tilapia and Vermiculture/Vermicomposting.”
Yaggie Gumacal said:
Napaka-gandang experience nito para sa’kin. (This is a very beautiful experience for me.) This will serve as motivation for me to continue agribusiness. Sa mga kabataan, walang ibang mas magandang oras para magsimula sa agribusiness kung hindi ngayon. (To the youth, there is no time to start an agribusiness more beautiful than now.)
What else do the youth want? Let me repeat what Ms Jocelyn said, that yaggies can apply for working capital with the ACPC, the loan without collateral and without interest, up to P500,000 payable in 5 years!@517
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