Vegetable growers face challenges in meeting domestic demand
DAVAO CITY — Vegetable farming could prove to be lucrative with the current domestic supply gap estimated at $3 million and the Asia-Pacific market expected to hit $3 billion in the next three years.
“There is a big market for vegetables now and in Asia Pacific alone it is expected to grow from a $2 billion market to a $3 billion market by 2021,” Department of Agriculture (DA) Undersecretary Jose Gabriel M. La Viña said in an interview during the National Vegetable Congress held in the city from Aug. 22-24.
But before looking at the export potential, Mr. La Viña said the agriculture sector should first address domestic demand.
“We are faced with the challenge of how to grow food faster and how to become self-sufficient, much less become exporters of vegetables,” he said.
The DA has rolled out programs to encourage farmers to plant high-value crops, use farm technology more intensively, and follow best practices.
“We train them to become entrepreneurs, we provide very low interest loans from 2% to 6% depending on the crops planted,” he said, noting that vegetable farmers can avail of P25,000 worth of financing.
Mr. La Viña said while individuals can qualify, the DA prefers lending to cooperatives to encourage farmers to organize themselves.
Under Republic Act 10848, which extended the period of implementation of the Agricultural Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (ACEF) to 2022 from 2015, farmers can access not only training programs but also opportunities to modernize and mechanize operations.
Up to 80% of the ACEF is for financing, providing up to P5 million per project for cooperatives and P1 million for small farmers.
The remaining 20% of the fund is for research and development grants.
CLIMATE-SMART
The Vegetable Industry Council of Southern Mindanao (VICSMin), Inc., which has been staging the yearly gathering of vegetable farmers since 2006, is also working to improve production.
VICSMin Vice President Rogelio G. Gualberto said the association hopes that this year’s congress will provide the sector further knowledge on modernization, food safety and techniques to adapt to changing weather conditions through climate-smart technology.
Raymundo R. Calugcugan, soil and plant nutrition consultant of Tagum City in Davao del Norte and head of R.R. Calugcugan Technology, was among those that presented a climate adaptation system that was piloted in Cauayan, Negros Occidental.
R.R. Calugcugan Technology — a research and technology provider and volunteer company tapping a network of researchers, innovators, agriculturists, pastors and lecturers — set out to train around 200 farmers in Cauayan in 2015 through the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s Sustainable Livelihood Program for 4Ps beneficiaries, the government’s cash transfer program.
The training involved a Precision Farming System, which uses the Rhizocote Micronutrient and Rhizocote Foliar Fertilizers.
“This was a hands-on training where the farmers were made to actually do the plowing, seeding, transplanting, fertilizing, weeding, pest and disease control, harvesting and even marketing,” said Mr. Calugcugan, who was named Most Outstanding Inventor of the Philippines in 1997 by the Department of Science and Technology and the Filipino Inventors Society, Inc.
Drought struck in February 2016, and the farmers were bracing for the worst, but their vegetable farms survived.
“These 200 farmers proved that sustainable farming is possible even during dry spells when their vegetable plants survived the drought,” said Mr. Calugcugan, also a 1997 WIPO Gold Medal Awardee of the World Intellectual Property Organization.
Mr. Calugcugan said the Cauayan experience has been replicated in other projects nationwide.