Department of Agriculture to lead opening of Agrilink 2019 today

The Department of Agriculture(da) and its allied agencies will be leading the opening of Agrilink Foodlink and Aqualink 2019, the country's premiere international trade exhibit in agriculture, food and aquaculture, at the World Trade Center, Pasay City, at 9am today, October 3. Secretary William Dar has directed the DA and its bureaus and regional offices to address issues of sustainability, food security, global competitiveness and agricultural resiliency in the context of the event's theme, “Climate Change-resilient Agriculture: A Must for Eastern Visayas.”

Secretary Dar will be joined by DA'S attached agencies led by Alfredo Aton, director of the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI); Bernadette San Juan, director of the Agribusiness and Marketing Assistance Service (DA-AMAS); Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (Philmech); Bureau of Agriculture and Fisheries Product Standards (BFAPS), Philippine Rice Research Institute (Philrice), Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), and Korea Agricultural Machinery Industry Cooperative (KAMICO). Industry stakeholders and members of the diplomatic corps will be led in a tour of the exhibits showcasing the world’s best products, services, technologies and market trends in agribusiness, food and aquaculture.

As in previous years, the DA sees Agrilink as an ideal platform to emphasize its core programs and projects, and promote the importance of an integrated focus on the chain of agribusiness activities, which in turn improves the efficiency of value adding and supply chain.

At 10:30am, BFAPS will have a seminar the standards, regulations, and best practices on setting up organic agriculture. At the same time, ATI will be holding a technical workshop on mushroom production and processing, including substrate production (gathering the bulk material where the mushrooms can grow), preparation of planting media, proper care of fruiting bags, and harvesting techniques. Sunjin Philippines, manufacturer and distributor of animal and fowl feeds and feed ingredients, will also share best practices on livestock farming.

At 1pm, UNAHCO will hold seminars on biosecurity measures that can be used to control pathogens in hog farms. Nonprofit Fruit South Africa will have a seminar on South African fruits and their export market in the Philippines. At 3:30pm, KAMICO will be holding a technical workshop on farm mechanization, particularly in rice, while Davao-based Farmtech Agriland will have a seminar on how to efficiently use nitrogen in farms to better mitigate climate change.

This event runs until Oct. 5 which will also feature local and international agricultural products, live animals (except for hogs ) and plants display and other special activities that will underscore the most up-to-date and ground-breaking inputs, technologies and alliances.