LOCAL FOOD FEST. Farmers sell their produce directly to buyers and consumers during the two-day Panay Island Local Food Festival and Trade Show held at the Robinsons Place Iloilo, starting from Friday. The food fest was held until Saturday (March 2, 2019). (Photo by Perla Lena)
ILOILO CITY -- From just mere producers, farmers in Panay Island are empowered to become agripreneurs with the creation of the integrated local agri-product marketing framework with financial facility under the public-private partnership (PPP).
The event was part of the third phase of the Panay Island Sustainable Rural Development Project (PIU-SRDP) funded through a grant from the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and implemented through the Hankyong National University and the Department of Agriculture (DA) 6 (Western Visayas).
“Today, the farmers from these towns in Iloilo, Capiz, and Antique will be moving (to) a level higher," Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said during the opening of the two-day Panay Island Local Food Festival and Tradeshow on Friday.
The event was organized by the DA and the KOICA so farmers’ organizations from 11 municipalities of Panay island could introduce their products directly to buyers and learn how to capture market trends by meeting with various consumer groups.
“From just being a farmer who produces eggplants, or beans, or cabbage or tomatoes to the farmer who plants tomatoes, harvests his tomatoes and markets his tomatoes. Hopefully, in the years to come he would be elevated further where he will now process his tomato into catsup or tomato paste and even be able to get added produce,” Piñol added.
KOICA president Lee Mi-Kyung said the project is aimed at enhancing the quality of life of people, especially in the upland areas of Panay island.
“This trade fair emphasizes the importance of the local food producers for the regional economy, market linkages between the producers and consumers and enhance the quality of life of farmers in Panay island,” she said.
The trade fair was participated in by farmers’ organizations from the towns of Libacao and Madalag in Aklan; Sebaste, Tobias Fornier and Patnongon in Antique; Jamindan and Tapaz in Capiz; and Alimodian, Tubungan, Lambunao and San Miguel in Iloilo.
A Bayanihan Tipon Center (BTC) was established in each town, except San Miguel, which has been chosen as host of the Local Food Terminal.
Ariel Lastica, executive director of the Lambunao BTC, said they have 157 Champion Farmer candidates joining their cluster.
“It (BTC) creates a venue wherein they (farmers) have a stable market for their products,” he said.
He added that farmers are more motivated to engage in farming because “they saw the possibility that when they sell their products at the BTC they will be paid outright for their produce.”
They produce “pinakbet” ingredients, such as string beans, bitter gourd, squash and hot pepper; spring onions; ginger; turmeric; banana; and alugbate (Malabar spinach).
The BTC serves as the consolidator and not as middlemen, hence, the prices of the produce get a markup of only PHP5 to PHP10 per kg., lower than the prices of middlemen, who usually double the farm gate price when sold in the market.
“We are planning a transition for our champion farmers program that could empower our farmers wherein they will be working on their own production module that they can compute the break-even cost, volume and the farm gate price of their products,” he said. (PNA)
