MANILA – In simple rites held in Quezon City in Metro Manila on July 30, 2015, Embassy of Japan’s First Secretary Kenji Terada, together with Department of Agriculture Assistant Secretary Paz J. Benavides Ⅱ and Philippine Council for Agriculture and Fisheries Executive Director Ariel T. Cayanan led the launching ceremony for the “Upgrading of the Pesticide Residue Laboratories Project” under the Japan Food Security Project for Underprivileged Farmers, (formerly known as the KR2 Program). Under Japan’s Official Development Assistance, the total fund support for this project is Eighty Five Million FiveHundred Thousand Pesos (P85,500,000.00).
This project aims to contribute to food safety in the Philippines and Japan by analyzing pesticide residues in food using new equipment funded by Japan. The equipments were installed at the National Pesticide and Analytical Laboratory in Quezon City and the Satellite Pesticide and Analytical Laboratory in Davao City.
The KR2 Program has been implemented in the Philippines for more than thirty years. Japan provided the Philippines with farm inputs worth billions of Pesos for this program. In addition, the counter-value fund from the KR2 Program benefited many farm and fishery development projects. These include post-harvest facilities, irrigation facilities, farm to market roads, capacity building programs for farmers, and many others.
This project strengthens the food safety in the Philippines and Japan, and also contributes to maintaining the health of the citizens of these nations. (Eagle News Service/Embassy of Japan)