Community stores which will sell basic household items, very much like the “Kadiwa” Stores previously operated by the National Food Authority (NFA), will be opened in August as part of the Department of Agriculture (DA) program to make food available to residents of remote areas in the Bangsamoro Region.
The community stores, to be known as “Padian na Bangsamoro,” will be operated and managed by wives, widows and orphans of former Bangsamoro combatants.
Each of the 50 stores, 10 in each of the five provinces in the Bangsamoro Region, will get a P500,000 funding in the form of a No-Interest, No-Collateral loan from the Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC), the rural credit agency of the DA.
Initially, the stores will sell such common household needs as rice, salt, sugar, dried fish, canned goods, milk, spices and even kitchen utensils at prices lower than prevailing market prices.
Patterned after the “Kadiwa” Stores formerly operated by the NFA, the “Padian” will also later become outlets of basic agricultural needs of farmers in the area like seeds, farm inputs and fertilizer.
The establishment of the “Padian” was one of the projects identified as “immediately deliverable” during the 2-day Consultation Workshop on the Crafting of the Agriculture and Fisheries Master Plan for the Bangsamoro Region held Thursday and Friday in Davao City.
The DA initiated the planning workshop as part of the new task given by President Rody Duterte for Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol as his “point person” to oversee and coordinate the implementation of the commitments of the national government to the Bangsamoro Region.
Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) Agriculture and Fisheries Minister Mohammad Yacob was tasked to initiate the identification and organisation of the wives, children and widows of former combatants into groups which will manage and operate the “Padian” outlets in their communities.
Once identified, the DA-ACPC will conduct a training for the widows, children and wives of former combatants on financial literacy, accounting and simple business management in cooperation with its partner company, SM BDO Foundation.
All the 50 initial stores will be linked by a computer network which would monitor daily the sales and activities of the “Padian” outlets.
Once successful, the “Padian” outlets will be expanded to cover all other areas in the Bangsamoro Region, especially the remote island communities.
(Photo of a store with Muslim women downloaded from the blog site “Muslim in Manila.” Photo showing participants in the BARMM Agri Fisheries Master Planning taken by DA-AFID team.)
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