By Roy Mabasa With the disruption of the value chain during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), local farmers in Benguet have adopted Japan’s safe vegetable production and marketing technology to boost sustainability. This was made possible after years of undergoing training through the auspices of the Japan Agricultural Exchange Council (JAEC) in partnership with the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). “Our farmers were trained to become more competitive in the market by using available raw materials for production, producing organic vegetables that are safe for consumption, and becoming more competitive against imported vegetables,” said Wilfredo de Chavez, JAEC chief technical advisor for the Safe Vegetable Production and Marketing Technology Project. JAEC is a Japanese non-profit group that has been training young farmers in Japan from many countries, including the Philippines. To date, they have trained 650 Filipino farmers in Japan. Without the training, De Chavez noted that about 40 percent of vegetables had become food waste during delivery from farms to markets. In the course of the first four phases of the project from 2007 to 2016, the training of the Filipino farmers focused on safe vegetable production. The fifth phase, conducted from 2016 to 2019, sought to boost farmers’ income through proper post-harvest handling, transport, and pricing. During the fifth phase of the project, Filipino officials visited and observed vegetable farms in Japan and personally witnessed the harvesting, packing, shipping of vegetables, handling of cold storage, wholesale market, farmers’ market, and supermarket. In return, the officer-trainees explained to local farmers the importance of distribution to preserve vegetable freshness. Today, Benguet farmers are using crates in packing their vegetables instead of paper and plastic. A group of farmers also works with a Japanese company supplying vegetables in the Asian market during the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine. Aside from marketing, the Japanese-funded project also trained farmers on using available raw materials like coconut husks, trimmings from trees, and weeds as an alternative to chemicals to make their produce safer for consumption.