MOA Signing with Negros Occidental Provincial Government and DOST for the launch of WeTrace Philippines
The Provincial Government of Negros Occidental signed a historic Memorandum of Agreement with the Department of Science and Technology Regional Office VI and the Association of Negros Producers, Inc (ANP). The MOA was created to formalize the collaboration among parties to promote and intensify the use of computer-based system for the traceability of agricultural products along the whole commodity chain in WeTrace Philippines’ key pilot areas.
WeTrace Philippines is a multi-stakeholder partnership supported by The Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the justice Foundation (justiceF) in Germany. The WeTrace project is simultaneously implemented in the Philippines by ANP and in Vietnam by Support Center of Agricultural Enterprise and Farm (VSCEF). The Vietnamese partners have sent a delegation for benchmarking exercise and knowledge exchange session.
The program promotes the utilization of KIPUS web-app tool that digitally records all relevant farming activities; created, advanced and implemented by Knowledge Intelligence Applications GmbH (KIAG), a German service provider for traceability. The data collected is being analyzed to enable farmers to formulate recommendations and solutions which will result in the improvement of their production and at the same time boosting the marketability of their agricultural products.
The MOA with Province of Negros Occidental, DOST-VI and ANP was signed on 15 March 2018 at the Negros Occidental Provincial Capitol among Governor Alfredo G. Marañon Jr., DOST Regional Director Engr. Rowen R. Gelonga and ANP President Christina Marie B. Gaston. The signing was also witnessed by Julia Haasler (BMZ), Dr. Stephan Kunz (justiceF) and Director Thanh Dang Huy (VSCEF).
With this collaboration, WeTrace Philippines is anticipated to be the lead advocate of transparency and traceability in local agriculture landscape by 2020 which will translate to upscaling the value chain while championing good agricultural practices and abiding to food safety standards.