The Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Philippine Chamber for Agriculture and Food Inc. (PCAFI) forged a partnership agreement for the promotion and linkage of DA’s Kadiwa Agribiz Portal and PCAFI’s Agri Food Hub on October 20, 2020.

Agriculture Secretary William Dar and PCAFI Chairman Phillip Ong signed the memorandum of agreement (MOA) that reinforces the government and private sector collaboration in terms of improving market linkage facilitation for farmers and fisherfolk.

Through the MOA, PCAFI agrees to promote the Kadiwa Agribiz and e-Kadiwa online marketing platforms among its members. The DA, on the other hand, will link the non-government organization with agricultural producers nationwide for the promotion of the Agri Food Hub digital platform.

Ong presented to DA Undersecretary for Operations Ariel Cayanan how their social enterprise project works, its benefits to the country’s food value chain, and the challenges they encountered since the platform was launched.

Undersecretary Cayanan said that DA will help turn those challenges into opportunities that will essentially benefit both the food producers and buyers. DA Agribusiness and Marketing Assistance Service (AMAS) OIC-Director Ramon Yedra, who also witnessed the MOA signing, committed to closely coordinate with PCAFI and link the organization with the DA regional offices. ### (Gumamela Celes Bejarin, DA-AFID)