DA taps crowdfunding platform

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Agriculture (DA) is exploring more ways to access capital as it partnered with crowdfunding platform Cropital, to provide rice farmers additional income and help them become agripreneurs.

DA-attached agency Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), through its program Rice Business Innovations Systems (RiceBIS) Community, tapped Cropital for the implementation.

"Capital access is just one of the areas of partnerships we explored. We are also working on tapping technology transfer, training, enterprise development, organizational building, and policy to empower the farmers to build their enterprises," RiceBIS program leader Aurora Corales said.

The RiceBIS Community program is one of the new development programs of PhilRice that aims to help rice farmers improve their income through agripreneurship.

Cropital has been particularly tapped by PhilRice Los Baños for their RiceBIS Community site located in Sariaya, Quezon.

A globally recognized organization whose development is being supported by institutions in the US, Netherlands, Malaysia and the Philippines, Cropital is a social enterprise that provides farmers access to scalable and sustainable financing.

It also generates investments to help finance farmers through crowdfunding and allow people to invest their money in agriculture by funding a farm.

Cropital regional community manager Niphie Watanabe said the number of people investing their money in agriculture through Cropital continue to increase.

"Most of these people are composed of young professionals and overseas workers," Watanabe said.

Through Cropital’s linkage to RiceBIS Community program, investors would fund the rice-based enterprise proposed by the RiceBIS Community farmers.

Agripreneurship is the core concept being promoted by the RiceBIS Community Program. Starting its second season of implementation, the program continues to harness the agripreneurial opportunities for farmers.