Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson of Negros Occidental extended financial grant to the RiceBIS Negros Agrarian Reform Cooperative (RiceBISNARCO) for its entrepreneurial engagements.
Through the Farmer Entrepreneurship Program that aims to connect farmers to institutional buyers, RiceBISNARCO received PhP250,000 in which 80% of the amount will be used as capital for palay buying.
Moreover, 20% of the grant will be allocated in management skills training, seminars, and workshops on bookkeeping and entrepreneurship.
The series of training will be facilitated by PhilRice, Department of Agrarian reform, Office of the Provincial Agriculturist (OPA), and Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PHilMech).
One of the factors that qualified the farmer-group is its good record in using and enriching government interventions that members participated in since its registration as a cooperative in 2019.
This includes the PhP1M trust agreements from the Department of Agrarian Reform and PhP5M machinery from PHilMech under the RCEF Mechanization Program. OPA conducted a seminar on palay-buying operations following the turnover of the check.
