Onion, garlic as priority under HVCDP

ONION and garlic are now priority commodities under the Department of Agriculture’s National High Value Crops Development Program (HVCDP).

Joan Bacbac, Cordillera Region’s HVCDP focal person said the move is part of the national thrust to address the perennial shortage of both crops in the national market.

In a message to local government unit HVCDP provincial and municipal counterparts (HVCDP provincial and municipal focal persons) during their meeting at the Agricultural Training Institute in La Trinidad, Benguet on January 31, 2018, Ms.

Bacbac appealed to all local government unit’s HVCDP provincial and municipal counterpart for support to intensify garlic and onion production in non-traditional production areas.

The HVCDP official hopes production from other areas of the country will fill up at least 80 percent of the national requirements and help address the rising garlic and onion prices in the market caused by cartels.

At present, the Philippines produce around 7,469 metric tons of garlic planted to 2,646 hectares all over the country. The current production is equivalent to seven percent of the requirement of 130,000 metric tons for the country to be self-sufficient.

Last year, DA Secretary Emmanuel Piñol challenged all regional offices of the agency to seek all possible ways and means to help local farmers venture into the production of onion and garlic.

Pursuant to Piñol’s directive, the DA-Cordillera Regional Field Office will establish technology demonstration farms on garlic and onion in the six provinces of the region.

Other priority commodity of the National HVCDP includes rubber, coffee and cacao for industrial crops while mango and banana for fruit crops.

Vegetables were retained as regional high value commodity crops specifically white potato, cabbage, carrots, Chinese cabbage and snap beans; Mango and Strawberry for fruit crops; coffee and cacao for industrial crops; and ube under root crops as priority commodity. This is based on the volume of commodity produced in the region and aligned to the priority commodities identified under the Philippine

Rural Development Project (PRDP)

The provinces also identified their priority commodity, particularly coffee for all the provinces of Abra, Apayao, Benguet, Kalinga, Ifugao and Mountain Province.

Additional commodities in Benguet are ube and white potato as its provincial priority identified under the PRDP Project.

The interventions given to farmer beneficiaries should be based on the priority commodity.