The Department of Agriculture in Ilocos awarded certificate of recognition to 27 agribusiness enterprises or equivalent to 31 young individuals in a Provincial Young Farmers Challenge (YFC) Program awarding ceremonies held today at the DA-Regional Field Office I Conference Room, San Fernando City, La Union.

An activity that aims to recognize young farmers and fisherfolk who are expected to engage in sustainable and profitable agri-fishery enterprises with their innovative and viable business models, the awarding ceremonies was spearheaded by the Agribusiness Marketing Assistance Division through the YFC Program.

Of the 27 agribusiness enterprise awardees, each shall be given P80,000 or a total equivalent of P2,160,000 grant to finance their agri-business models focusing either in production, processing, marketing, etc.

Out of the P2.16 million financial grant, the province of Ilocos Norte got the biggest share with P640,000 for its eight ( agribusiness enterprises followed by the province of Pangasinan with P560,000 to be given to the seven (7) business enterprises. The provinces of La Union and Ilocos Sur shared the same amount of financial grant of P480,000 for their six (6) agribusiness activities.

Now on its four-year implementation, the YFC Program in Ilocos has already granted a total of P16.97 million to 186 business enterprises benefitting 279 individual young farmers who were able to join the advocacy of venturing into profitable, viable enterprises that provide revenue and potential solutions to problems in the farming business.

From the 27 business enterprise awardees, they shall compete in the regional level to have the chance to be given additional financial grants amounting to P150,000 (start-up category for individual), P250,000 (start-up category for intercollegiate) and P300,000 (up-scale category). After passing the rigid evaluation by the panel of judges from the DA-AMAD, the academe and agribusiness enterprise-practitioners, those with the highest score shall be eligible to compete at the National Competition and get the chance to bag the additional P300,000 for start-up category and P500,000 for up-scale category.