AN AGRICULTURE advocate urges the government to assist the farmers in the enterprise development and should not be limited on land distribution.
“Lahat kasi ng assistance ng government is focused on productivity assistance. What the farmers need is ‘from processing to marketing’,” Ugnayan ng mga Nagsasariling Lokal na Organisasyon sa Kanayunan (Unorka)-Mindanao consultant Ervel Buenaventura said in an interview during the Mindanao Farmers Conference (MFC) on Saturday, July 13.
MFC is a conference held at Almendras Gym Davao City Recreational Center that aims to discuss the Mindanao agrarian framework, direction, and policy agenda that would benefit farmers and other stakeholders.
More than 3,000 agrarian reform beneficiaries and farmer cooperatives from regions in Mindanao gathered to the island-wide farmer conference that also aims to address agrarian and agriculture reforms the sector is currently facing.
Buenaventura said Unorka, a federation of agrarian reform beneficiaries and farmer cooperatives, is pushing for a “community-based rural enterprise development” that would help farmers in the expansion of production of byproducts.
He said the government should not limit its programs on land distribution, hence, should facilitate land beneficiaries on utilizing these lands.
He added that the government should also create interventions to directly connect the farmers to the buyers.
“Kailangan i-connect natin ang farmers diretso sa buyers para maiwasan natin ang traders. Kasi doon nawawalan ng pera ng ating farmers (We need to connect the farmers direct to the buyers to eliminate these traders, because these are the reasons why these farmers lose income as they are becoming middlemen in the trading),” Buenaventura said.
This would give farmers an equal opportunity in selling their products in the market, he added.
Meanwhile, Mindanao Development Authority (Minda) officer-in-charge Nathaniel Dalumpines, in his speech, said inclusive business approach is very important in the agriculture sector.
Dalumpines said this would support the farmer cooperatives by allowing the marginalized communities and sectors of the society to share the benefits of the economic growth.
He also said Minda, one of the facilitators of the conference, hopes to strengthen its partnership with Unorka in pushing for agenda such as agro-agrarian development and promote advocacies on fair trading and labor arrangements. (RGL)