Trade Mission: USDA and Land O’Lakes partner in Philippines
2/4/2010 12:00 AM

During the first U.S. Trade and Investment Mission (TIM) to Southeast Asia in late October, U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the USDA would be providing $8.5 million in disaster aid for typhoon victims in the Philippines.

The $8.5 million in assistance is under the USDA Food for Progress Government to Government Program, which is expected to provide food to an estimated 438,000 people for two months.

The USDA assistance includes 7,000 metric tons of U.S. rice and 680 metric tons of non-fat dry milk, which will be processed into Ultra High Temperature milk and fortified biscuits to be distributed.

The Philippines is the largest recipient of USDA food aid programs in Asia. In 2009 alone, USDA signed three Food for Progress agreements with the Philippines amounting to $25 million with Land O’Lakes, Catholic Relief Services and ACDI/ VOCA implementing the program. (ACDI/VOCA is a private economic development organization that resulted from the 1997 merger of Agricultural Cooperative Development International and Volunteers in Overseas Cooperative Assistance.)
During the TIM, Vilsack expressed the United States’ commitment to further fostering strong ties with the Philippines in the area of agricultural trade.

“We at USDA are very committed to continue this trade effort (through) bilateral agreements, breaking trade barriers and multilateral agreements,” Vilsack said. “We are committed, as this administration is committed, to trade.”

Yawar Naeem, Land O’Lakes International Development Division’s (IDD) Philippines country manager, attended the event. Naeem updated Vilsack about the Food for Progress project in the Philippines and thanked him for USDA’s continued support of the cooperative’s development projects around the world.

Vilsack encouraged IDD to keep supporting small farmers in the developing world. Patricia Sheikh, deputy administrator for the Offiffi ce of Capacity Building and Development in USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS), also praised the efforts of Land O’Lakes IDD to improve the livelihoods of dairy and livestock farmers in the Philippines and other developing countries.

All the participants of the trade mission were invited for a dinner on Oct. 26 at the Philippines Presidential palace hosted by Philippines Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap. There Yawar briefed Yap and Philippines U.S. Ambassador Kristie Kenney about IDD’s project in the Philippines as well as upcoming activities for the farmers in Mindanao. The officials said they hoped Land O’Lakes would continue improving the livelihoods of those in poor rural communities.

 

This article is featured in the winter 2009/2010 issue of growing together™ Magazine. To view this issue, click here.