Monday, April 02, 2007 Farmers exert efforts to improve crop competitiveness
BENGUET farmers and traders are strictly complying with all the recommendations of high-end consumers to improve the quality of their agricultural products and to be globally competitive.
Alfredo Alangdeo Sr., overall head of the La Trinidad Vegetable Trading Post Associations here, said all of the suggestions of high-end consumers in the different parts of the country are being done to ensure the continuity of their markets and to make the local agriculture industry alive despite the serious impact of the importation of vegetables from other countries.
Alangdeo's reaction came after it was reported in the local and national papers that some farmers who were contracted by DOLE Asia to supply vegetables to the company were found by the firm's sanitary inspection team to be using water from the Balili River to sprinkle on their lettuce.
He explained that nobody should be blamed for such finding but DOLE Asia recommended appropriate measures that must be adopted by the farmers to improve the quality of their products.
He said some farmers along the Balili River are not actually using water from the river to sprinkle their products but tare getting it from a deep well in their area, thus the company recommended proper mitigating measures to improve the products for the satisfaction of the consuming public.
Alangdeo assured consumers in the different markets in Metro Manila that the quality of vegetables produced in the province are of good quality and such reports are simply misquotations and misleading.
The plight of high-end consumers for better quality products prompted Benguet Governor Borromeo Melchor to appeal to the National Government to provide additional subsidy, particularly for improved infrastructure, irrigation and facilities to ensure potable water supply, to boost the local agriculture industry.
In fact, the Benguet Provincial Government has worked out the construction of a deep well within the compound of the Benguet State University (BSU) to be used by farmers as a source of clean water for their farms so they would not be accused of using water from the Balili River. (DS)
