THE Higalaay festivities for this year has begun with the farmers of Cagayan de Oro City showcasing their greenest produce, filling the iconic Gaston Park.
The Higalaay Agri Fair and Garden Show, the first event onward to the coming fiesta celebration, has officially opened to the public last Monday, August 5, wherein farmers from the city’s 4H Clubs, Rural Improvement Clubs, and cooperatives will directly sell their agricultural products to the public.
The Garden Show of the event will also present the landscaping skills of gardeners and landscaping artists in Cagayan de Oro and Mindanao.
This year’s agri fair and garden show is participated by 15 barangays and five rural improvement clubs, according to Eileen San Juan, the city fiesta executive committee head.
The barangays, clubs, and cooperatives that taken interest in joining the competition will be judged twice and to be rated to see which group will win the Best Landscaping and Best Booth awards.
“They (the judges) do the judging twice. They started with the opening on Monday then the judges were asked to come back again within the month to do again their rating para at least to ensure that whatever they have put in terms of landscape, in terms of yung mga produce nila sa booth will also be maintained throughout the month,” San Juan said.
The farmers displayed their produce such as vegetables and fruits, and garden plants for sale.
San Juan also remarked the improvement of the participants’ booth compared to last year’s.
“It gets bigger kasi aside from our local participation, may mga guests din na nagpupunta, they join from Davao, from Agusan. Medyo masikip na nga sya ngayon compared to before and they really put up magagandang mga booth din ngayon,” San Juan said.
“We really like to showcase Cagayan de Oro products, especially produce from our farmers and local producers. So we would like to invite everyone from Cagayan de Oro and also from those outside Cagayan de Oro to come and visit the Agri Fair and Garden Show. It has a very good display of various plants, fruits and vegetables,” she added.
The Higalaay Agri Fair and Garden Show will run from August 1 to 31 from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.