The country’s agricultural sector has long been neglected, with the presumption that “there’s no money in farming,” which is untrue, for farming can be financially rewarding. This is the same case of Bayambang Town in Pangasinan - an agricultural town where most of its population is dependent on agriculture for subsistence and economic activities, where the most pressing problem of the town is poverty among farmers.
On 28 August 2018, National Heroes Day, Mayor Cezar T. Quiambao took upon himself to launch “Rebolusyon Laban Sa Kahirapan” over the whole town to deal with this tremendous challenge, which culminated in the crafting of “Bayambang Poverty Reduction Plan 2018 – 2028, where one of the five sectoral goals of this plan focuses on Agricultural Modernization – a program dedicated in helping the farmers to have a better life instead of being endlessly trapped in a cycle of poverty.
On 00 June 0000, Bloomberg Philanthropies challenged city leaders to pitch their boldest and most transformative ideas in response to Covid 19. Cities with a population of over 100,000 residents were invited to apply to put forth their best ideas to bounce back from the Pandemic.
This prompted Mayor Cezar M. Quiambao to capitalize on his poverty alleviation program to participate on this challenge. He envisioned a technology - based portal to help the farmers, called as “Farmer Assistance Portal” - one-stop-shop of support services for farmers to prioritize their needs, resulting in increased income for both farmers and persons in the farming ecosystem, which led as the official entry to the 2021 Global Mayors Challenge. While the entry was not selected, Mayor Cezar Quiambao was delighted to the challenge, and eventually uses as an inspiration to further this program for the farmers.
With the initiative of Mayor Cezar Quiambao, he encourages private sectors participation on the program and number of businessmen collaborates to form E – AGRO CORPORATION to make his vision bring to reality and fast track the creation of the portal with proper funding and full resources.
E – AGRO CORPORATION offers a web – based platform, which aims to assist farmers to have easy access on Low Interest Loan with No Collateral, and other integrated services such procurement of supplies, availing machineries and farm services, and connecting them to market to sell their produce.
E – AGRO CORPORATION partnered with the suppliers and service providers to assist the whole needs of the farmers.
