Students and graduates of agriculture, forestry, and natural resources (AFNR) courses can now avail of microfinancing assistance. Through PCARRD’s national program on ‘Enhancing the demand for AFNR graduates through science and technology (S&T), budding ”technopreneurs” can now have their start-up capital through the ‘DATBED-like’ component of the program.
DATBED stands for DOST-Academe Technology-Based Enterprise Development. It is a special loan facility of the Department of Science and Technology’s Technology Adoption and Promotion Institute (DOST-TAPI); an alternative to the more rigid and complex financing systems set by other private banks and formal lending institutions, not normally accessible to students.
PCARRD, through its AFNR program, has linked new AFNR-based entrepreneurs and the DOST-TAPI. The Council did this by training students and unemployed graduates on how to prepare their business plans and other requirements of the DATBED loan grants.
AFNR-DATBED
PCARRD has adopted the DATBED modality to develop the entrepreneurial skills of AFNR students and young unemployed graduates from selected public higher education institutions; at the same time creating educational income-generating projects to benefit the involved state universities and colleges (SUCs).
Under the AFNR-HR (human resources) program, three SUCs in the Southern Tagalog, Bicol, and Eastern Visayas regions were chosen to jointly implement DATBED projects with the DOST Regional Offices in Regions IV, V, and VIII. These SUCs are Bicol University (BU), Cavite State University (CvSU), and Visayas State University (VSU).
The AFNR-DATBED fund amounting to almost P 5 million is available to support projects in 22 provinces in the said regions, including the islands of Mindoro, Romblon, Marinduque, Palawan, Catanduanes, Burias, Masbate, Samar, Biliran, and Leyte.
In a related development, an awarding ceremony for DATBED loan recipients was recently held at the Oriental Mindoro Provincial Capitol in Calapan City.
At present, there are 75 DATBED projects spread out in 10 provinces. In Region V, BU and its partner SUCs, namely: Camarines Norte State College (CNSC), Central Bicol State University of Agriculture (CBSUA), Catanduanes State Colleges (CSC), and Dr. Emilio B. Espinosa Sr. Memorial State College of Agriculture and Technology (DEBESMSCAT), have a total of 29 student-beneficiaries and 63 graduate-beneficiaries. They are involved in hog fattening, doe fattening, asexual pili seedling production, vegetable production, native chicken raising, tilapia raising, freshwater prawn culture, and egg layer and broiler production.
In Region IV, CvSU and the Mindoro State College of Agriculture and Technology (MinSCAT) have 12 beneficiaries. Their chosen enterprises are coffee nursery, coffee and lowland vegetable production, processing of banana chips and pickle preserve. Meanwhile, VSU is still in the process of selecting its own recipients of the loan program.