By Manny Piñol
The country’s organic rice farming has received a big boost after a group of Overseas Filipino Workers in Dubai, UAE agreed to gather their money and invest in organic rice farming in my hometown M’lang, North Cotabato.
I witnessed the pledge of commitment by the Dubai OFWs to the organic rice production program during a meeting which I attended at the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) during a stop-over on my way to Piura, Peru for the APEC agriculture ministers meeting.
The OFWs, who were invited by Labor Attache Ofelia Domingo, also pledged to act as the salesmen of Philippine agriculture products not only in Dubai but also in other countries in the Middle East.
After meeting with Don Bosco Multi-Purpose Cooperative chairman Nono Laurilla on Friday in Dubai, the Dubai OFWs said they will initially finance 156 hectares under the “Adopt-a-Farm” Program designed by the DOLE, the Dept. of Trade and Industry and the Dept. of Agriculture representatives in the Middle East.
Under the “Adopt-a-Farm” program, the Dubai OFWs will provide organic rice farmers in M’lang, North Cotabato with a P20,000 loan per hectare which will be managed by Don Bosco, the first organic rice producing cooperative which went into the export of the commodity.
As Secretary of Agriculture, I pledged to the OFWs that the DA will match their investments by providing Don Bosco a financing equivalent to the investments of the OFWs.
Their earnings will be ploughed back into expanded areas with the purpose of expanding the coverage area of organic rice.
The OFWs also said they will form a corporation to be registered in the Philippines and in Dubai to handle the marketing, not only of the organic rice produced through their financing, but also other agriculture products like banana, pineapple and mango.
It was a brilliant move on the part of the OFWs and the credit largely goes to LabAtt Ofelia Domingo who facilitated everything.
Organizing OFWs into an investments group addresses the age-old problems of returning OFWs wasting their money on poor investments like the opening of sari-sari stores or buying a tricycle or a passenger multi cab.
Many of them lost their hard-earned money because of the poor investments.
I suggested to the OFWs that they act as the salesmen of other Philippine Agriculture products in the Middle East and promised to send to them a catalogue of products which they could help market.
The OFWs said among their priorities is the opening of an outlet in Dubai to serve as the showroom of the products from the Philippines.
I was very happy with the development because this was what I had long introduced to the OFWs from my home province in North Cotabato.
Soon, the OFWs will no longer just be ordinary overseas workers. They will become big time investors and marketing agents for the produce of the Filipino farmers and fisherfolk.
(Photos show the investments forum for OFWs in Dubai who agreed to provide financing for the expansion of organic rice farming in M’lang, North Cotabato.)
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