DA supports investing in the next generation for zero hunger, poverty alleviation, food security and prosperity

Department of Agriculture (DA) Senior Undersecretary Domingo F. Panganiban and the members of the Philippine delegation, attended events dedicated to the involvement of the youth in the agrifood systems and the achievement of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals during the fourth day of the World Food Forum (WFF) flagship event 2023.

The WFF, launched in 2021, is an independent, youth-led global network of partners facilitated and hosted by the FAO. It aims to spark a global movement that empowers young people everywhere to actively shape agrifood systems to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and a better food future for all. It is organized into three interlinked fora – the WFF Global Youth Forum, the FAO Science and Innovation Forum, and the FAO Hand-in- Hand Investment Forum.

The FAO Hand-in-Hand Investment Forum co-organized an event on Scaling Youth-Led Solutions: Investing in the Next Generation with the purpose of providing the WFF Startup Innovation Award winners, teams from the WFF incubation program, and the Youth Food Lab a chance to present their ideas and businesses to venture capitalists and funders. Several ideas were presented, including solutions to addressing rural poverty with the help of bees and trees in Uganda, minimizing food loss and wastage in Kenya using mobile solar-powered refrigeration, and utilizing computational biology to develop the world’s first bacteriocin pipeline to address antimicrobial resistance in animal diseases.

Similar to the Young Farmers Challenge (YFC) of the DA, this session endeavors to guarantee that young agri-innovators and agripreneurs can sustain their agriculture project ideas over the long term with the right capital backing and adequate financial support from prospective investors and the business community.

Sr. Usec. Panganiban underscored the importance of the Youth Forum as an avenue for budding Filipino agri-entrepreneurs to pitch their agribusiness ventures in the international setup, and considered having representatives from the Philippines present their pitch in next year’s WFF, with the appropriate support from the DA through the Agricultural Training Institute.

The youth-led