"I want you to know that the DA has not forgotten you. To the stakeholders of cabbage, tomatoes, carrots, and potatoes, they are all important.”
This is the assurance said by Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel, Jr., in a town hall meeting with highland vegetable industry stakeholders during his visit to the Benguet Agri-Pinoy Trading Center last week.
The dialogue was attended by farmers, traders, truckers, market facilitators, agricultural extension workers, municipal and provincial agriculturists, and other stakeholders from Benguet, Ifugao, and Mountain Province.
“I brought the whole team here with us at the national office to help think about our current situation and see how we can improve,” he continued.
According to Laurel, the dialogue’s goal is to find interventions to advance the province’s farm sector, boost the income of its farmers, and align strategies that lower farmers’ cost of production.
“This is really a consultation so that we can have a policy that you want and we also want the government to achieve President Marcos' goal of a New Philippines. All new. A new direction to improve the life of every Filipino,” he said. "The overall cost of production will be reduced but the farmers' income can be maintained or even increased -- that is what we should think about carefully and help each other so that farmers and consumers can be happy.”
Meanwhile, issues related to smuggling were also raised, urging industry stakeholders to be ‘active partners’ of the government in putting an end to the illegal transportation of goods.
The agriculture further expressed, “As for anti-smuggling, we will not stop there because that is the prime directive of President Bongbong Marcos, who needs to be caught, punished, and imprisoned. Fortunately, we will be releasing a new anti-smuggling bill with more teeth.”
Among the issues raised during the town hall meeting also include the high cost of farm inputs, like fertilizers, seeds, and pesticides, and the lack of market outlets for Good Agricultural Practices-certified products.
Hence, Laurel pledged a series of initiatives, “including the establishment nationwide of facilities similar to those found in the Food Terminal Inc., creating market outlets for GAP-certified products, expanding KADIWA stores in Metro Manila, enforcing laws related to vegetable and fisheries trading, ensuring the strict implementation of the EO 41 which suspended collection of fees by local government units from vehicles transporting goods, and providing support to the cut flower industry in the region in recognition of the industry's role in job creation and livelihood.”
Earlier this month, videos of cabbage dumping on roadsides and cliffs and other crops being sold at a lower price or given away for free were circulated online, which according to agricultural group Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura is linked to last December’s good harvest.
The DA-CAR is continuously aiding the affected farmers by delivering their harvests to various potential markets and trading posts all over the country through Kadiwa trucks. Moreover, plans to increase the number of cold storage facilities for stockpile crops in the said province are in the works.
