Artificial Intelligence (AI) – powered applications rollout and use for today’s businesses is definitely on the rise. And this is the core relevant topic identified by JCI Manila in their recent advocacy seminar entitled “Leading Through A Time of Change”.
Held at Huawei BGC office in Taguig, the Junior Chamber International Manila spotlighted “Harnessing AI to Rethink Work and Reimagine” with no less than Donald Lim, President and COO, DITO CME, delivering the opening remarks.
Special guest and speaker Cong.Brian Poe Llamanzares, Representative of FPJ Panday Bayanihan Party-List shared his perspectives as a government official, while a number of speakers and panelists graciously contributed as well including Rune Evensen of Terra Enterprises inc., Michael Budow of Blackwall Industries, Amira Alawi or Coins.ph, Janette Toral of I-Metrics Asia Pacific Corporation, and Jonel Uy of DigitalCircles Media Relations and Influencer Marketing agency, among others.
JCI Manila “Fresh to Last” Project
The project “Fresh to Last” is aimed at addressing post-harvest losses among vegetable and fruit farmers in the Benguet Province, one of the country’s primary agricultural production areas.
Farmers in Benguet regularly experience periods of oversupply during peak harvest seasons. When market demand cannot absorb the volume of produce, vegetables and fruits are often sold at significantly reduced prices or left unsold before they can reach consumers. For many farmers, this means that a productive harvest does not always translate into stable income.
Project “Fresh to Last” seeks to address this challenge through the introduction of food dehydration technology, allowing surplus harvests to be preserved and converted into value-added products. The project involves the donation and installation of a commercial-grade food dehydration machine within the premises of the Benguet Agri-Pinoy Trading Center, a key agricultural trading hub where produce from across the province is consolidated and distributed.
The machine is designed to process agricultural produce into dried and shelf-stable food products. Each drying cycle can process around 50 to 70 kilograms of fresh fruits or vegetables per batch, enabling surplus harvests that might otherwise spoil to be preserved and marketed in a different form.
For the Benefit of Benguet Farmers
The initiative is expected to benefit farmers affiliated with the Federation of Benguet Farmers Cooperative, an umbrella organization representing more than 30,000 farmer-members across Benguet. By introducing post-harvest processing capability within the trading center, the project aims to provide farmers with an additional avenue to maximize the value of their harvests.
Beyond the equipment donation, the project also includes training and capability-building programs for farmers and cooperative members. These programs will cover food dehydration techniques, food safety practices, packaging and labeling, product development, and basic marketing and enterprise management.
The training component will be conducted in partnership with institutions such as the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, the Department of Trade and Industry, and Benguet State University, whose respective mandates support technical training, enterprise development, and agricultural research.
Through this initiative, surplus harvests that would otherwise spoil can instead be preserved and turned into products that farmers can store, transport, and sell even beyond the harvest season. In this way, Project “Fresh to Last” seeks to help farmers capture greater value from their crops while reducing unnecessary food wastage.
JCI Manila is currently open to donations from the public and institutions who want to support this fundraiser. You may contact the “Fresh to Last” team on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61587043299648 or JCI Manila FB Page at @JCIManilaph and website JCIManila.org.
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