Tiaxa is awarded with a Certificate of Accreditation (National Level) by the DA Secretary William D. Dar, Ph.D. and PCAF Acting Executive Director Liza G. Battad, Ph.D. during the 6th National Agriculture and Fisheries Volunteers’ Day at the Bureau of Soils and Water Management Convention Hall on January 7, 2021.
Tiaxa, an international solutions company based in Chile and with office in the Philippines, has been awarded with a Certificate of Accreditation (National Level) for having satisfactorily complied with the requirements for accreditation as a legitimate Civil Society Organization (CSO) to be engaged by the Department of Agriculture (DA) as partner CSO in the implementation of agriculture and fishery programs, projects and activities pursuant to DA Administrative Order 19, Series of 2020. This makes Tiaxa an official member of the Agriculture and Fishery Council (AFC) of the DA under the Philippine Council for Agriculture and Fisheries (PCAF).
The AFCs are the mechanism for private sector participation in the development processes at the national, regional, provincial and city/municipal levels. It is also a venue for consultation and dialogues between the DA, national banner programs and other agencies, with national industry groups and civil society organizations.
“In this extraordinary time, the AFCs showed how dedicated they are in serving the sector. Members of the AFCs were necessitated to find new ways to voice out issues and concerns, and still craft sound policy recommendations to help the pandemic-stricken industry,” said DA Secretary Dar.
The Agriculture Chief also appealed for the support and commitment of the AFCs in carrying DA’s key strategies in pursuing major programs and activities that will pave the way to attain a modest agriculture sector growth of 2.5% this 2021. With the help of the AFCs and PCAF’s guidance to the council members, Sec. Dar is confident that the sector can “survive, reboot, and grow”.
Tiaxa, as the first accredited ICT-based CSO, is fully committed to provide its support in line with PCAF’s pursuit towards inclusive, innovative and participatory development of relevant policy recommendations and digitalization of the agriculture sector through its WeSqore platform.
“We are thrilled to be supporting millions of Filipino farmers, providing them access to valuable data and digital content, as well as helping each individual build a digital footprint with a record of their abilities and hard work to facilitate their access to financial services. Our partnership with DA and PCAF brings together the multiple skill sets required to be successful at scale. Particularly facing the challenges of COVID, we take pride and responsibility in contributing to the advancement of the small entrepreneur through this exciting digital inclusion initiative,” said Tiaxa’s CEO & Founder Felipe Valdes.
WeSqore provides a real-time business intelligence platform that improves the delivery of quality agri-services and extension systems. This is accomplished by providing information and services at the right time, facilitating the adoption of new agronomic practices, resulting in yield improvements and higher income for farming households.
WeSqore will serve as a mediation platform, featuring credit scoring, business profiling and decisioning tools, and this approach resulting in a wider selection of interactive information and transactional services. Using WeSqore, farmers will have better access to the allocation of government budgets for crop assistance and this will enable more efficient planning and decision-making for DA officials.
“The year 2020 has been a challenging year for all the sectors and industries, including Philippine agriculture. We hope and pray that 2021 will be safer, kinder, prosperous, and ‘OneDARful’, Sec. Dar added, emphasizing the “OneDA” approach to pursue DA’s critical strategies for 2021.”
PCAF is an attached agency of DA that facilitates broad-based participatory processes in the agriculture and fisheries sector through consultations, dialogues and monitoring that leads to the creation of sound policies, plans and programs of the Department.
“With everyone’s participation and enthusiasm to work together, we can strengthen and magnify this sector’s importance and contribution to the Philippine’s agriculture growth and in nation-building,” Sec. Dar concluded.