Thursday, November 15, 2007 Food terminal to save farmers from ‘abusive’ middlemen
THE Department of Agriculture will launch a program that will help stop the exploitation of poverty-stricken Cebuano farmers by businessmen for decades.
Geraldine Montecillo Franza, chief of the DA 7 Agri-business and Marketing Assistance Division, acknowledged the issues raised during the Kapihan sa PIA yesterday that farmers are always the victims of middlemen who buy their products at token prices and sell it in Carbon market 10 times higher.
Franza said that this thing happened for a long time now because farmers don’t know how to market their products and they lack transportation.
Launching
Franza said that DA 7 will put up as many Barangay Food Terminals all over Central Visayas. A food terminal will be launched on Nov. 20 in Barangay Inayawan, Cebu City while another one on Nov. 26 in Barangay Sambag II, both in Cebu City.
“These two barangays are depressed areas and the barangay officials are coordinating with our office. These barangay food terminals will be managed by farmers’ cooperative accredited by the local government units (LGUs) concerned,” Franza said.
She added that DA 7 has allocated an initial P1.5 million to lend to cooperatives that will put up and manage the food terminal. Every cooperative can avail itself of P150,000 in capital assistance.
“I think this is a noble project because it will benefit both the farmers who produce vegetables and fruits; who can sell the goods at reasonable price and the consumers to avoid exorbitant prices,” Franza said.
Also present during the Kapihan sa PIA were Melchor Bautista, chief statistician of the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics; Zaide Bation of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and Engineer Saul Gonzales of the Department of Energy (DOE).
Bation said that DTI has assurance from businessmen and canned goods manufacturers that there will be no price increase until at the end of the year.
But she urged LGUs to activate Local Price Coordinating Council (LPPC) in coordination with DTI so they can monitor the prices of commodities.
The LPCC can also monitor any cartel and price manipulation to the detriment of the public.
Commodities
Meanwhile, Bautista encouraged the farmers to tell the exact figure of their harvests so they could have accurate statistics of products.
“It’s important that the consumers will be aware of the stocks of products in the market,” Bautista said.
Gonzales, on the other hand, said that any increase in fuel prices has little impact to the prices of commodities.
“If you noticed, it’s really the supply and demand that is the main factor in the increase of prices of basic goods,” Gonzales said. (EOB)
