Representatives of the Embassy of Japan and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), headed by Economic Minister Nihei Daisuke and First Secretary and Agriculture Attache Tachikawa Jumpei, paid a courtesy call to the Department of Agriculture (DA) on November 22 to identify key areas of agricultural cooperation between the Philippines and Japan.

DA Senior Undersecretary Panganiban expressed the Philippines’ interest in seeking financial assistance from Japan, either through soft loans or the Japan Food Security Project for Underprivileged Farmers (formerly called the 2KR Program), to help support the DA’s programs toward food security.

In response, the Japanese envoys relayed that the Government of Japan is currently conducting an assistance program for procuring chemical fertilizers and facilitating fertilizer management in cooperation with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (UN FAO).

The bilateral cooperation between the Philippines and Japan is also expected to benefit agricultural projects in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) by helping provide farm-to-market roads, communal irrigation systems, and other initiatives.

The officials also discussed Japan’s satellite technology for the surveillance and detection of banana diseases such as Fusarium wilt, which is currently posing a threat to the Philippine banana industry.

A more intensive discussion on areas of agricultural cooperation between the two countries is set to take place during Philippine President and Agriculture Secretary Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s visit to Japan next year. ### (Krystelle Ymari A. Vergara, DA-AFID)