The newly-signed Go Negosyo’s Kapatid Angat Lahat Agri Program (KALAP) stands to benefit small farmers by incorporating them into the value chain of large agribusiness companies and create jobs in the agricultural sector, Go Negosyo founder Joey Concepcion said on Tuesday, March 7.
KALAP is an initiative to harness the private sector to help small farmers across the country. Its ceremonial signing was led by Concepcion and witnessed by President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. at the Ceremonial Hall of Malacañang Palace.
The Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) and Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with several government agencies were signed last Monday, March 6, and are seen as instruments to transform the country’s agriculture industry.
Marcos, in his speech, highlighted the role of big corporations in spurring the growth of small farmers.
”No one sector can manage it by itself,” he said, adding that private sector help will “enable MSMEs (micro, small, and medium enterprises) to become profitable, sustainable, and globally competitive.”
The President also emphasized the importance of giving back profit to the farmers.
“In the end, this is about giving a decent living to our farmers, so they can live by the virtue of their hard work,” he said.
Among the signatories in the MOAs and MOUs were Go Negosyo, the Department of Agriculture (DA), Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, the National Irrigation Administration (NIA), Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA), and the National Tobacco Administration (NTA).
Concepcion explained that KALAP is where agriculture meets job creation.
“It is the platform where we hope to employ as many Filipinos as possible, and it will do so where our job creation efforts can have the most impact: in the agriculture sector,” he said.
The proponents of KALAP—including former Agriculture Secretary and now KALAP senior adviser William Dar—added that the program aims “to promote inclusive growth, sustainability, competitiveness, and development in the Philippines by leveraging the potential of MSMEs, small-holder farmers, and fisherfolk.”
The primary agricultural commodities and industries that KALAP wants to focus on are rice, coconut, tobacco, coffee, cacao, sugarcane and corn/feeds/livestock.
Following Go Negosyo’s advocacy, KALAP aims to provide MSMEs access to the three M’s—mentorship, access to money, and market—that are necessary for entrepreneurship to succeed.
To do this, KALAP needs to partner with “big brother companies.”
KALAP is part of the larger Kapatid Angat Lahat initiative, which was first conceived by Go Negosyo in 2016.
Some of the biggest companies and business organizations in the Philippines have pledged aid for Kapatid Angat Lahat, and renewed their commitment at the MSME Summit in August 2022.
“KALAP is public-private partnership at work, and perhaps the most important PPP that we will undertake,” Concepcion said.
“It is in agriculture that we find a large number of the micro entrepreneurs – the micro farmers, and it is they who need the most help. It is in this sector where a multiplier effect of jobs and enterprises, growth in communities away from the urban centers, can happen,” he added.