DA set to boost market linkages, halt wastage of agri products
Assorted vegetables are unloaded and sold at the vegetable trading post in La Trinidad, Benguet (ALLAN MACATUNO / file photo)
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Agriculture (DA) on Friday announced plans to link farmers with institutional buyers in an effort to avoid wasting agricultural goods.
The DA said it will assist in facilitating transportation of produce to places where they are in demand.
“The [DA] is intensifying market linkages through contract farming with hotels, restaurants, and other institutional buyers on the procurement of surplus harvests,” it said.
This would entail “zero to minimal wastage” of agricultural goods, the DA added.
The DA, which President Ferdinand Marcios Jr. himself heads, plans to distribute delivery trucks and vegetable crates to farmers’ cooperatives and associations (FCAs) and municipalities under the agency’s Enhanced Kadiwa Grant.
According to the DA’s website, the said program is “a direct marketing scheme where producers (farmers/fisherfolk) are directly linked with the consuming public, making available food commodities at reasonable prices to consumers through accessible Kadiwa retail stores in strategic locations.”
“The Marcos administration is committed to strengthening the entire agricultural value chain, which begins from the food growers and producers down to the consumers, in order to ensure stable local food supply and likewise stabilize food prices,” said the DA.
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