On Monday, Third Secretary Yumi Yamada of the Embassy of Japan attended the turnover ceremony in Anao, Tarlac for “The Project for the Procurement of Pre and Postharvest Equipment for the Farmers of Municipality of Anao, Tarlac.”

The ceremony was also attended by Anao Mayor Rafael Naral, the members of the municipal council, and other stakeholders.

In Anao, the majority of its residents engage in agriculture, which serves as their main source of income.

For land preparation and harvesting activities, agricultural machinery is still not widely used among small local famers, instead they are usually done manually or by carabaos.

When done manually, these activities take three or four times longer than when done by using agricultural machinery.

Furthermore, there tends to be a greater volume of postharvest food loss when harvesting is done manually; the post-harvest loss amounts to about five percent of annual yield.

To address the productivity and post-harvest food loss issues, the Embassy of Japan provided a grant amounting to $89,042 or approximately 4.6 million pesos to the local government unit of Anao.

The grant covered the procurement of a farm tractor, trailing harrow, rotavator, combined harvester, corn kit and trailer. In her message during the ceremony, Third Secretary Yamada expressed her hope that now that farmers from the project’s target barangays of Rizal, San Roque, and Suaverdez have access to the equipment, they will be able to increase their income and have fewer financial worries.

As the top ODA donor for the Philippines, the Government of Japan launched the Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Projects (GGP) in the Philippines in 1989 to reduce poverty and help various communities engage in grassroots activities.

At present, 549 grassroots projects have been implemented by the GGP. Japan believes that these projects will strengthen the friendship between Japan and the Philippines and contribute to sustaining strategic partnerships between the two countries. Embassy of Japan-Press