Japanese NGO and GOJ Start Support for Micro Scale Farmers in Northern Luzon

Japanese Ambassador Kazuhide Ishikawa and Ms. Rie Minamoto, Project Manager of GLM Institute(GLMi), a Japanese NGO, signed the grant contract for the project “Support to increase agricultural income of micro-scale rice farmers through improvement of farming management in Northern Luzon” at the Embassy of Japan on December 16, 2016.   The project, amounting to US$349,066 (approximately 17 million pesos), is funded through the Grant Assistance for Japanese NGO projects, a grant funding program of Japan’s Official Development Assistance(ODA).
 
In Northern Luzon, known as good productive site of rice in the Philippines, there are many micro-scale rice farmers who manage only around 0.5 hectare less-productive farmland.   They sustain to make their living through income from their own farm as well as one-day labor for planting and cultivating in other farm.

In order to consolidate the process of overcoming poverty through improvement their farming, the Government of Japan funds GLMi to its project which started last year, consisting of capacity building for management, making a production plan, effective ways to fertilize, and  to remove pest, as well as support for improvement and rehabilitation of farm road.
 
The Grant Assistance for Japanese NGO Projects started in the Philippines in 2002.   Since then, the Japanese Government has made contracts for 45 projects in the Philippines under the scheme, amounting to approximately 960 million yen (approximately 403 million pesos) in total.   Japan believes that this project will strengthen not only friendship between the peoples of Japan and the Philippines but also the existing strategic partnership between Japan and the Philippines.