DA eyes soft loans from JapanMANILA, Philippines — The Department of Agriculture (DA) plans to secure soft loans from Japan to bump up the food security programs under the two countries’ bilateral cooperation. Representatives of the Embassy of Japan and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), led by Economic Minister Nihei Daisuke and First Secretary and Agriculture Attache Tachikawa Jumpei, met with the DA to identify key areas of agricultural cooperation between the Philippines and Japan. During the meeting, DA Senior Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban expressed the Philippines’ interest in seeking financial assistance from Japan. This is either through soft loans or the Japan Food Security Project for Underprivileged Farmers (formerly called the 2KR Program) to help support the agency’s programs toward food security. The project aims to come up with a vegetable value chain roadmap to identify major bottlenecks, provide solutions, and distinguish the roles of each stakeholder along the value chain.

Source: Philippine Star December 01, 2022 02:27 UTC