DA veggie marketing to lessen middlemen

BAGUIO CITY -- The Dept. of Agriculture Cordillera regional office here has set a program to sell vegetables from the Cordillera directly in buyers to address price drops due to over production and eliminate middlemen.

DA – CAR regional director Cameron Odsey, bared this in media forum here August 14 saying Cordillera provides 80 percent of highland vegetable supplies of Metro Manila.

He added in 2019 the Cordillera was 238 percent self – sufficient in vegetables.

He cited Cordillera vegetable farmers for their support in “Plant, Plant Plant” program or the Ahon Lahat sa Pagkaing Sapat (ALPAS) Laban sa COVID – 19,to  ensure food supplies through continuous production of highland vegetables.

On the recent price drop of cabbage, Odsey said from time to time there is over-production of certain vegetables  that coincides with lesser market demands.

In this time of Covid-19 pandemic, strict quarantines affected delivery of vegetables to markets.

The DA-CAR, Odsey said, is addressing such concerns, adding there are programs and services that can be tapped such as Kadiwa retail stores, Kadiwa on Wheels and Kadiwa Express that market farm products directly to consumers.

DA - CAR's Kadiwa programs assisted 8,824 farmers regionwide with a total sales of P220.6 million and these involved 2,832 vegetable farmers with total sales of around P70.8 million.

Under the program, DA – CAR will enhance its Kadiwa Express activities for the delivery of vegetable products affected by drop prices, which at the moment is cabbage, to Metro Manila and other markets in Luzon.

Their office is also tapping the Benguet Agri – Pinoy Trading Center (BAPTC) as “buyer of last resort” during oversupply of vegetables in the region.

For this, DA – CAR allotted P20 million (P10 million for the facility and P10 million for equipment), for BAPTC to have food processing center for the region’s agricultural produce.

Odsey urged farmers to strengthen their organization and form cooperatives for more efficient trading of their farm produce, not only in BAPTC but also on other trading centers in Cordillera and the nearby regions.

“This will also reduce the profit that are going to the middlemen,” he added.

Odsey appealed to localgovernment units tosupport Cordillera farmers through lesser restrictions in transport of agricultural products. -- JDP/CCD-PIA CAR