As the administration of President Rody Duterte enters its 16th month, the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries is continuing its advocacy to link the country’s food producers to the market and consumers to improve their income and stabilize the price in the market.
The innovation started in November last year when Nueva Ecija onion farmers complained that they could not get a good price for their produce because the market was controlled by a cartel.
Responding to that, the DAF contacted Presidential Adviser Joey Concepcion and asked for his help in inviting institutional buyers to meet up with the Onion farmers.
The meeting was held in the Manila Golf Clubhouse and the dinner was sponsored by former Congressman Martin Romualdez.
There was a meeting of minds and the rest is history.
There are still challenges though like the long wait by farmers for the payment of their products by supermarkets but these are now being addressed.
The advocacy to limit the influence of middlemen and traders in the food supply chain and the prices continues with the staging of a series of TienDA Farmers and Fishermen’s Outlets.
On Oct. 28, the TienDA goes to the Army Headquarters Compound in Fort Bonifacio where the DAF Agribusiness and Marketing Office led by Undersecretary Berna Romulo-Puyat will launch an added innovation, the KISS ME program.
KISS ME stands for Karne, Isda Supply Suporta sa Masa at Ekonomiya and it aims to open neighborhood outlets selling dressed chicken and poultry products, meat and fish which come directly from the farmers and fisher folks.
A Japanese company, Sanden Philippines has pledged to support the program by initially lending out chillers, freezers, cold storage and refrigerated truck vans to support the project.
As directed personally by Pres. Duterte, disabled and wounded soldiers will be tasked to manage the program to provide them livelihood.
This will first be established in military commissaries and later, if successful, in housing subdivisions and highly populated areas.
The expected results would be affordable food commodities for consumers, better income for the food producers and most of all, a viable livelihood activity for the country’s heroes.
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