Monday, September 01, 2008 Fida urges farmers to produce quality abaca By Joy Romares-Sevilla
THE Fiber Industry Development Authority (Fida) in Southern Mindanao has urged abaca farmers in Davao City to produce good quality of abaca to be more competitive not only in the local, but also in the international trade.
Dr. Olympio Macarayan, Fida-Southern Mindanao regional director, told Sun.Star Davao last week that farmers in the city are starting to produce low grade of abaca fibers.
This, he said, will affect the competitiveness of the abaca farmers.
"There are reports that some farmers are starting to produce low grade of hand-stripped abaca because they learned that traders will still buy it," Macarayan said.
He added that Fida discourages traders to buy low grade of abaca since this will trigger farmers to be unproductive.
"Traders tend to buy all the produce of farmers even if it is low grade. Pakyawan ang nangyayari. They will be the one to classify the low grade from high grade and they apply techniques such as bleaching for low grade abaca to become good," Macarayan said.
He added that prices of low grade hand-stripped abaca fibers are cheaper by P5 compared to the high grade hand-stripped abaca.
"I understand that farmers are enticed to produce the low grade abaca fibers because they can produce about 80 kilos in a day. If they produce high grade abaca, they will only produce 12 kilos in a day," Macarayan said.
"But this is not good, if this will continue. Other farmers might replicate to produce the low grade and this will affect the competitiveness of farmers in the city," he added.
Macarayan, on the other hand, claimed that the quality of abaca produce in Davao City is better than those produced in Davao Oriental.
"Davao Oriental has the biggest production of abaca, but most farmers do not produce good quality because abaca diseases in abaca plants are also massive. The quality of abaca in Davao is better, that's why we really encourage farmers to continue to produce better quality to project that Davao is competitive even if we do not produce as much as that of Davao Oriental," Macarayan explained.
He said Fida is very ready to render technical support such as trainings to farmers and cooperatives to upgrade the skills of farmers.
"We conduct technical support to farmers. All they need to do is to request, this is one way we can help in the productivity and quality improvement of farmers' produce," Macarayan said.
