Kadiwa veggies from Benguet to arrive in Abra Friday

By Liza Agoot

July 28, 2022, 7:42 pm

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<div id="yiv0561120770"><strong>KADIWA TRUCKS</strong>. Vegetables are loaded into a Kadiwa truck in Baguio City on June 9, 2022. The Department of Agriculture-Cordillera said on Thursday (July 28, 2022) it will deploy two Kadiwa trucks in quake-hit Abra on Friday. <em>(PNA photo from DA-CAR FB)</em></div>
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KADIWA TRUCKS. Vegetables are loaded into a Kadiwa truck in Baguio City on June 9, 2022. The Department of Agriculture-Cordillera said on Thursday (July 28, 2022) it will deploy two Kadiwa trucks in quake-hit Abra on Friday. (PNA photo from DA-CAR FB)
BAGUIO CITY – The Department of Agriculture (DA) in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) is sending two “Kadiwa on wheels” trucks filled with assorted vegetables to quake-hit Abra to assure residents of nutritious supplies that they can buy at cheap prices.

“It will be in Abra in the early morning of Friday and will move from one town to the other,” said Dr. Cameron Odsey, regional director of the DA-CAR in a private Facebook message on Thursday to the Philippine News Agency.

The director said they are already coordinating with the provincial government of Abra.

Odsey said the trucks will be deployed in the towns of San Quintin, Pidigan, Bangued, Tayum, Dolores, Lagangilang and Bucay to serve the vegetable needs of the town.

He assured that the prices will be the same as the wholesale selling prices at the Benguet Agripinoy Trading Center in La Trinidad, one of the sources of vegetables transported to the other regions by traders.

Mura lang ibebenta kasi wholesale prices ito na BAPTC at walang mark-up na usually napupunta sa traders and transporters kasi DA ang magdadala (The vegetables will be sold at low prices like buying wholesale items at the BAPTC and without the mark-up for the traders and transporters because it will be the DA that will bring the vegetables),” Odsey said.

He said the truck will move from town to town, as recommended by the DA-CAR during the management meeting where they also did an assessment and planning of the programs for victims of the magnitude 7 earthquake that hit Abra and nearby provinces on July 27.

“We will follow the guidance of the provincial government as instructed by President [Ferdinand Jr.] Marcos during the situation briefing in Abra this morning [Thursday],” the director said.

Odsey also said that they are asking the central office of the DA for the release of PHP148.24 million.

Of that amount, PHP108,963,700 will be used for the Rice Farmers Financial Assistance II (RFFA2) program as assistance to the 21,158 registered rice and corn farmers in Abra who might have been affected by the earthquake.

Meanwhile, PHP39,291,012 will be used to buy 8,534 bags of certified and hybrid rice seeds; 225 bags of corn open pollinated varieties; 100 packs of assorted lowland vegetables and the other amount to be used for the fertilizer voucher that will be released to 13,202 beneficiaries in Abra.

Odsey said that key officials of the DA-CAR during the assessment and planning saw the need to immediately provide farm inputs so that people can start planting or boosting their plants.

“We have not come up with the agricultural damage report because the monitoring and assessment in coordination with the local government units are still ongoing,” Odsey said.

The director also assured the public that any highland vegetable plantation damage in Abra will not affect the supply that is being produced and transported to markets outside of the region.

As of Thursday, the DA-CAR has monitored the trading of 1.18 million kilograms of assorted vegetables in trading facilities in La Trinidad like the BAPTC, La Trinidad vegetable trading post, and other private trading areas in the capital town. (PNA)

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