Agricultural innovations create the greatest impact when they are embraced and shared by farmers themselves.
Jollibee Group Foundation Program Manager Jan Paolo Vicente and Senior Program Officer Rebeka Paller received the Outstanding CSR Project in Enterprise Development award for the Agri-Tech Facilitators Program at the 2026 League of Corporate Foundations CSR Guild Awards.
This farmer-led approach earned the Jollibee Group Foundation (JGF), the Outstanding CSR Project in Enterprise Development award at the 2026 League of Corporate Foundations CSR Guild Awards for its Agri-Tech Facilitators (ATF) Program.
Instead of relying solely on occasional technical support from external experts, the ATF Program equips farmer leaders to become local champions who identify, test, adapt, and share practical farming technologies and climate-smart practices within their own cooperatives and communities.
“The most meaningful innovations are those that communities can understand, adapt, and sustain themselves,” said Gisela Tiongson, President of Jollibee Group Foundation. “Through the Agri-Tech Facilitators Program, farmer leaders are not only learning new technologies, but also becoming mentors, problem-solvers, and trusted sources of knowledge within their communities. By enabling farmers to lead the adoption and share locally relevant solutions, we create lasting impact that extends far beyond individual farms. We share this recognition with our farmer leaders and our partners, whose commitment continues to strengthen and build more resilient farming communities.”
Building local champions of innovation
The ATF Program is part of JGF's flagship program, the Farmer Entrepreneurship Program (FEP), which helps smallholder farmers strengthen their competitiveness while supplying institutional markets such as the Jollibee Group. It was developed in response to the growing demand from farmers for greater access to practical and appropriate agricultural technologies tailored to the needs of smallholder farmers.
The program develops farmer leaders through classroom learning, hands-on fieldwork, mentoring, and community-based practicum. Participants gain skills in agricultural extension, climate-smart agriculture, participatory technology development, proposal writing, project implementation, and facilitation before applying these learnings in real farming communities. Training materials were also translated into Filipino to improve accessibility.
Since its pilot implementation, the Agri-Tech Facilitators Program has trained and certified 18 farmer leaders as community-based agri-tech facilitators. These facilitators have gone on to develop and implement 14 agri-tech demonstration projects featuring practical innovations such as rain shelters, greenhouse production, drip irrigation, vermicomposting, and green manuring. Through peer-learning sessions, farm demonstrations, and community engagements, they have also shared these technologies with more than 200 fellow farmers, helping strengthen local capacity for technology adoption and climate-smart agriculture.
From learning to measurable impact
Implemented in partnership with academic institutions, the program combines theories with practical, hands-on learning. Ateneo de Cagayan – Xavier University played a key role in designing and delivering the training, while Central Luzon State University supported the development of the learning modules. University of the Philippines Los Baños also conducted a formative evaluation that validated the training's effectiveness in strengthening farmers' leadership, facilitation, and technical capacities.
The strengthened capacities of Agri-Tech Facilitators translated into practical innovations that delivered measurable results in their communities. In Laguna one Agri-Tech Facilitator introduced rain shelter technology for cabbage production after experiencing severe weather challenges. The innovation reduced the growing period from 120 days to 90–105 days while increasing marketable harvest from 30 kilograms under open-field conditions to 174 kilograms under protected cultivation. Following a previous season of crop failure caused by adverse weather, the farmer was able to harvest successfully and is now helping fellow farmers adopt the same technology.
Another practicum project demonstrated how greenhouse technology increased tomato yield by 79%, improved plant survival from 83.2% to 95.2%, reduced production cost per kilogram by 32%, and nearly tenfold increased net income compared with open-field cultivation.
Creating lasting impact through farmer-led learning
The CSR Guild Awards is a recognition program of the League of Corporate Foundations. It serves as a seal of excellence in corporate citizenship for organizations implementing social development initiatives with a meaningful and sustainable impact on the communities and institutions they serve.
For the Jollibee Group Foundation, the award recognizes more than a successful training program. It affirms a model that empowers farmers to become educators, innovators, and community leaders.
By strengthening farmer-led learning, technology adoption, and peer mentoring, the Agri-Tech Facilitators Program helps communities become more climate-resilient while supporting long-term participation in institutional markets.
As the Foundation continues to expand opportunities for smallholder farmers, JGF remains committed to making farming a dignified and profitable livelihood by connecting farmers with knowledge, innovation, and market opportunities.
About Jollibee Group Foundation
Jollibee Group Foundation (JGF) is the social development arm of the Jollibee Group. Established in 2004, the Foundation envisions every Filipino family to have food on the table. It builds partnerships and strengthens community capacities for resilience and self-reliance.
JGF promotes access to food through programs in agro-entrepreneurship, education, and disaster response, in collaboration with partners in the Philippines and abroad. Its flagship programs include the Farmer Entrepreneurship Program (FEP), which enables smallholder farmers to supply institutional markets; the Access, Curriculum, and Employability (ACE) Scholarship Program, which supports youth pursuing agriculture-related skills training; and FoodAID, which delivers immediate food assistance in times of crisis.
Under its ‘Joy of Learning’ banner, JGF implements the Busog, Lusog, Talino (BLT) Central Kitchen Program to address hunger and malnutrition among public school children, and recently launched the Classroom Building Project in celebration of its 20th anniversary.
Through these initiatives, JGF continues to spread the Joy of Sharing by working alongside communities to create lasting, meaningful change.
About Jollibee Group
Jollibee Foods Corporation (PSE: JFC) (the "Company") is one of the world’s fastest-growing restaurant companies, driven by its purpose of spreading joy through superior taste. It manages and operates a portfolio that includes 20 brands (the "Jollibee Group") with over 10,400 stores and cafés across 33 countries.
The Jollibee Group’s portfolio includes nine (9) wholly-owned brands (Jollibee, Chowking, Greenwich, Red Ribbon, Mang Inasal, Yonghe King, Hong Zhuang Yuan, Smashburger and Tim Ho Wan), five (5) franchised brands (Burger King, Panda Express, Yoshinoya, Common Man Coffee Roasters, and Tiong Bahru Bakery in the Philippines), and ownership stakes in other key brands like The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf (80%), Compose Coffee (70%), Shabu All Day (70%), SuperFoods Group that operates Highlands Coffee (60%), and bubble tea brand Milksha (51%). The Company also has membership interests in Tortazo, LLC, along with Chef Rick Bayless, for Tortazo in the U.S., and in Botrista, a leader in beverage technology.
The Jollibee Group's global sustainability agenda, Joy for Tomorrow, underscores its commitment to sustainable business practices across food safety, employee welfare, community support, good governance, and environmental responsibility, among others. These focus areas are aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).
The Company has been recognized as the Philippines' Most Admired Company by the Asian Wall Street Journal, named one of Asia's Fab 50 Companies, and listed among Forbes' World’s Best Employers and Top Female-Friendly Companies. The Company is also a five-time Gallup Exceptional Workplace Award recipient and featured in TIME’s World’s Best Companies and Fortune’s Southeast Asia 500 List.
To learn more about Jollibee Group, visit www.jollibeegroup.com
Comments
Post a Comment