Press Release
March 27, 2014

Villar Zeroes In On Women in Agriculture in Livelihood Training Initiative
Workshop for members of Rural Improvement Clubs conducted to enhance performance of enterprises

Senator Cynthia Villar, Chairperson of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Food, in her continuing efforts to uplift the lives of Filipinos through livelihood generation conducted a training workshop. This time, the beneficiaries are women involved in agriculture, particularly members and officers of Rural Improvement Clubs (RIC) from various parts of the country.

RICs are rural-based organizations of women whose goal is to uplift the living conditions of their farming families. The two-day workshop is titled 'Agriculture for Poverty Reduction: Enhancing contribution of RICs'. Among the topics of discussions were Strategic Management of RICs for enhancing contribution; Managing Performance for Poverty Reduction; and overview of the poverty situation in the country as well as the agriculture and fishery sectors.

"Unknown to many, women are a dominant force in agriculture. Unfortunately, since the agricultural workers are among the poorest in our country, these women from farming families bear the burdens of poverty. We want to support them by giving them knowhow and skills that they can use to grow their livelihood and improve their conditions in life," said Villar, who is known for the livelihood projects that she has established all over the country, which as of latest count numbers 490 already.

According to Villar, the workshop is very timely since March is International Women's Month and 2014 has been declared as International Year of Family Farming. "According to official statistics, 25% of the world's population is composed of women farmers, who are often heads of their families or households. Moreover, 50% of food globally is produced by family farmers," cited Villar.

Through the training and discussions, Villar aims to equip the participants- women in agriculture, with knowledge on the importance of strategically managing their organizations and assessing its performance. This will deepen their awareness of their key contributions to poverty reduction.

Villar added that in this time and age when global food production is threatened by various factors, governments all over the world are now recognizing the important role of women in agriculture. "We should be more mindful of the challenges that women involved in agriculture are facing. Among these are lack of access to adequate land and water, agricultural inputs, credit or financing, technologies and training. We have addressed one of them in this two-day workshop.

Villar hopes to contribute to reducing income poverty by promoting and developing Philippine innovations in agriculture and fisheries of rural based organizations such as RIC to make them effective and productive partners of the government in its efforts towards inclusive growth and poverty reduction. The culminating activity of the workshop was a study visit to the livelihood projects in Las Piñas.

News Latest News Feed