{"id":247002,"date":"2020-03-04T20:15:09","date_gmt":"2020-03-05T01:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=247002"},"modified":"2020-03-04T20:15:09","modified_gmt":"2020-03-05T01:15:09","slug":"govt-vows-aid-to-benguet-farmers-affected-by-covid-19-impact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/03\/04\/govt-vows-aid-to-benguet-farmers-affected-by-covid-19-impact\/","title":{"rendered":"Gov\u2019t vows aid to Benguet farmers affected by Covid-19 impact"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Roughly 130,000 Benguet farmers supply highland vegetables in different markets nationwide. (Photo by PH\u00daC LONG\/Unsplash)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Benguet farmers who are already feeling the effects of 2019 coronavirus disease (Covid-19) will receive assistance from the government, the Department of Agriculture (DA) guaranteed on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Agriculture Secretary William Dar said he would direct the DA regional office to help address the problems currently being faced by the Benguet farmers.<\/p>\n

\u201cMeron po silang ayuda na ibibigay.<\/em>\u00a0We will instruct again the regional field unit\u00a0ng<\/em>\u00a0DA\u00a0na tulungan itong may problema na mga<\/em>\u00a0farmer. So\u00a0kagaya ng mga buto siguro, pwede naming ibigay\u00a0<\/em>(They will get assistance. We will instruct again the regional field unit of DA to help farmers who are experiencing problems. Perhaps, we can give them seeds),\u201d Dar said in a weekly Palace economic briefing.<\/p>\n

The suspension of festivals and other crowd-drawing events in Benguet province due to the threat of Covid-2019 has taken a toll on local farmers following the drop in the sales of highland vegetables.<\/p>\n

Roughly 130,000 Benguet farmers supply highland vegetables in different markets nationwide.<\/p>\n

Agot Balanoy, head of Benguet Farmers Marketing Cooperative, noted on February 28 that the vegetable industry is experiencing difficulty from December 2019 to February 2020 because of the drastic drop in orders from hotels, restaurants and resorts.<\/p>\n

Wholesale prices of cabbage at La Trinidad Trading Post dropped to as low as PHP3 for the mighty ball variety, PHP4 for the rare ball, and PHP6 for the scorpio as of February 28.<\/p>\n

Dar said the government would look for a \u201clong-term\u201d solution aimed at addressing the low demand for the vegetables.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are elevating our game in terms of monitoring. We are monitoring the volume of production of commodities in different provinces that can be linked to other markets. So we will improve our responsibilities in that area,\u201d he said in a mix of English and Filipino.<\/p>\n

Dar said the \u201cKadiwa ni Ani at Kita,\u201d which was launched in September 2019, would allow farmers to benefit from a direct marketing scheme.<\/p>\n

The \u201cKadiwa ni Ani at Kita\u201d aims to establish a direct link between farmers and the consuming public. It is a market system that sells major agricultural goods at reasonably low prices.<\/p>\n

Dar said there was also a plan to establish a processing center in Benguet in an effort to address the low sales of highland produce.<\/p>\n

Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said Benguet farmers can also have a direct link with the supermarket sector.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe talked to supermarket (owners) last week,\u00a0sabi nila, gusto nilang ma-<\/em>link\u00a0din sa mga<\/em>\u00a0farmer\u00a0para<\/em>\u00a0derecho\u00a0madala sa mga<\/em>\u00a0store\u00a0mismo nila<\/em>\u00a0(they said they want to have a direct link with farmers so they can sell their vegetables to their stores),\u201d said Lopez, who joined Dar at the press briefing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 Benguet farmers who are already feeling the effects of 2019 coronavirus disease (Covid-19) will receive assistance from the government, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":247003,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-247002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-ruth-abbey-gita-carlos","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247002"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":247004,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247002\/revisions\/247004"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}