| THE Department of Agriculture has opened a P29.2-million regional “bagsakan” or drop-off center in Malasiqui, Pangasinan to raise the profitability of farmers and expand the access of consumers to quality foodstuff. Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said Malasiqui’s bagsakan center is projected to bring in a daily average volume of 2.5 metric tons (MT) of vegetables and other agricultural products from lowland and upland producers. A drop-off center is where farmers and fishermen can trade their produce directly to sellers without going through middlemen. It will benefit 20,798 households in 73 barangays in the municipality of Malasiqui. The Agriculture chief said that the local government of Malasiqui loaned the P29.9-million fund of the bagsakan center to Development Bank of the Philippines. It is intended to serve as an intermediate point for farmers of Malasiqui and other nearby municipalities as well as upland vegetable producers where they can consolidate their products and sell them to Northern Luzon consumers or bring them to Metro Manila market at higher farm gate prices. “By putting up bagsakan centers, farmers now have definite areas where they can directly bring their produce to local consumers, thus eliminating unnecessary trading layers that cut through their incomes,” Yap said. At the opening of the Malasiqui bagsakan, Yap committed to provide the municipality with a refrigerated van and wash area for vegetables once the drop-off center meets its average volume of production. The Agriculture Department’s Agribusiness Marketing Assistance Division (AMAD) in the Ilocos Region has coordinated with its counterpart in the Cordillera Administrative Region to encourage Baguio vegetable producers to trade their produce like potatoes, carrots, cabbage, sayote, raddish, sweat peas, and bell pepper at the Malasiqui bagsakan. The Agriculture Department plans to open more bagsakan centers, for this year, as well as barangay bagsakan, where prime commodities are sold at prices lower than those in regular retail outlets, outside Metro Manila. In 2007, the DA set up a total of 25 BFTs in Metro Manila and another 17 in the regions, plus 12 bagsakan centers for farm products. The DA is aiming for a minimum, annual farm-growth average of 4 percent to 5.2 percent over the next three years to keep the agriculture sector on its high growth path and thus spell better lives for rural families by way of bigger yields and higher incomes. |
Published by : manilatimes.net ] February 5, 2008
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