Life and crop sciences expert Bayer Philippines aims to empower women farmers through the Bayer Kubo project where they are equipped with tools and skills that will help increase farm output and sustain recovery from the disruption caused by the pandemic.
“This Bayer Kubo is where Bayer in the Philippines is bringing together our three divisions: consumer health, pharmaceuticals and crop science under one program to support our farmers,” said Bayer Philippines Inc. managing director and country division head for pharmaceutical Angel Michael Evangelista.
The pharmaceutical firm took the initiative to allow women in communities to contribute to growing local economy as they sustain means to provide for their own families.
Together with the Asia Society for Social Improvement and Sustainable Transformation, Bayer pilots the project in Manaog, Pangasinan where women farmers and farmer housewives are still struggling to recover and boost productivity.
The partnership selected Barangay Cabanbanan in Manaoag as the first community in the province to benefit from the program. A group of smallholder farmers surrounding the Bayer Learning Center in the area are the first to participate in the program.
It is a venue for farmers in the community where they can learn best practices and see the latest solutions available for vegetable production.
Bayer Kubo will run capability and capacity building programs combining health and agriculture by tackling family planning, self-care and nutrition and agri-oriented financial management and best practices.
“With the growing role of women in Philippine agriculture, who face competing demands to care for their families while ensuring they contribute to farm work and productivity, we aim to support women farmers and farmers’ wives’ through health, wellness, and sustainable agricultural practices –contributing to Bayer’s vision of ‘Health for all, Hunger for none’,” Evangelista said.
Over 100 women farmers will be trained as community champions that will ensure continued knowledge sharing and capacity building to train additional 1,500 community members on the best practices of family planning, farmer self-care, and agri-practices.
“As ASSIST moves forward in this partnership with Bayer Philippines, we will remain committed in creating more capacity-building opportunities that fit the needs of the women farming communities in Manaoag, Pangasinan. We acknowledge that other farming communities would greatly benefit from our intervention,” said ASSIST executive director Francis Macatulad.
The partnership plans to replicate the Bayer Kubo program in other farming communities across the Philippines.
