Smallholder farmers in the Philippines are improving the safety of their farming practices and the vegetables they produce, winning new buyers in some of the country’s most sensitive food markets.

A stepped training program developed as part of an ACIAR-supported project in the Philippines is helping many smallholder farmers move towards Philippines Good Agricultural Practice (PhilGAP) certification for their farming and food safety practices.

Mr Adam Goldwater from Applied Horticultural Research is the operations coordinator for the project working to develop vegetable value chains in the Philippines, linking smallholder farmers with higher-value vegetable markets.

Farmer training is one element of the project, along with the value chain and production research, which is being undertaken at six pilot sites on the islands of Mindanao and Leyte, involving about 130 smallholders.

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For further details, contact Adam Goldwater (AHR) — adam.goldwater@ahr.com.au