JICA offers program for agribusiness training

MANILA, Philippines — The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is accepting applications for a training program on agribusiness and agri-tourism that will be held in Okinawa in February 2018.

The training program is under JICA’s Knowledge Co-Creation Program (Young Leaders) in which participants will have the opportunity to learn about new technology and acquire skills in a specialized field.

“We believe that young Filipinos are becoming more aware of issues that surround society and that there’s a real interest for them to learn new ways of doing things and contribute to nation building,” said JICA chief Representative Susumu Ito.

Successful applicants will visit Miyakojima Island in Okinawa Prefecture to study green tourism. They will also observe product development using local resources in Yanbaru, an ecotourism site in southern Japan.

Ito said the training program would put emphasis on means to add value to farm and fishery products. 

“It took years for Japan to modernize its society by learning from other countries and internalizing new skills and knowledge to suit our needs and conditions. Thus, we hope that through the JICA training program, young Filipinos would draw lessons from Japan’s experience, particularly government and private sector partnership in Okinawa and adopt them to address local challenges,” he said.

JICA is opening the application until Nov. 24. The training program would be held from Feb. 7 to 24 next year. 

JICA’s Young Leaders training program has benefitted nearly 3,000 young Filipinos as of 2016. The Philippines has one of the youngest populations in Asia with a median age of 23 years.

Developing the rural value chain in the agriculture is in the administration’s socioeconomic agenda that is focused on a massive infrastructure development program and decentralization of growth.