SAN JOSE, NUEVA ECIJA — What once were fields of struggle in this farming town are now symbols of transformation, thanks to the Jollibee Group Foundation’s (JGF) Farmer Entrepreneurship Program (FEP). As the foundation marks its 20th anniversary, farmers here are reaping more than just onions—they’re harvesting hope, stability, and a future built on partnership and enterprise.
Launched in 2008, the FEP has empowered smallholder farmers to become agro-entrepreneurs through business training, market access, and institutional support. Farmers like Arnold Dizon, chairman of the Kalasag Multipurpose Cooperative, have seen firsthand how the program turns small cooperatives into key suppliers for major food brands such as Jollibee, Chowking, and Mang Inasal.
“Each success is everyone’s success,” Dizon said, recalling how Kalasag grew from 30 members into a thriving community enterprise offering loans, dividends, and educational assistance. All three of his children now farm land he acquired through the cooperative—proof, he says, that farming can lift entire families.
For co-founder Wencelito Gomez, the shift was even more profound. “Before, I only knew how to farm,” he shared. “Through FEP, I learned to run a business, manage people, and plan for the future.” Once trapped selling onions at a peso per kilo, Gomez now leads mentoring efforts nationwide, advocating for collective action among cooperatives, LGUs, and NGOs.
In 2024 alone, FEP farmers supplied 50 percent of the Jollibee Group’s onion needs, with 34 farmer groups delivering a total of 13 million kilos of produce—generating ₱703 million in sales. This translates to higher incomes, better livelihoods, and stronger rural economies.
During a recent FEP farm visit, media guests witnessed this transformation up close—walking the fields, joining harvest work, and hearing firsthand how strategic support from JGF redefines what’s possible for Filipino farmers.
By nurturing not only crops but capacity, the Farmer Entrepreneurship Program shows how investing in agriculture sustains not just food systems, but the very backbone of the nation—its farmers.
