Some agrarian reform beneficiaries organizations (ARBOs) have been enlisted to a government mobile marketing strategy to bring basic food items in different Cebu communities that were critically affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Department of Agrarian Reform-Central Visayas (DAR-Region 7) Assistant Director Varinia Fabillar, Department of Agriculture-Central Visayas (DA-Region 7) Regional Technical Director Joel Elumba, and Agrarian Reform Farmer-Beneficiaries' Association (ARFBA) president Rosito Gabato signed of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) last July 14 for the enrollment of ARBOs in the DA's Kadiwa on Wheels program.
The program is a component of the Kadiwa ni Ani at Kita where farm products are bought wholesale basis from farmers and retailed to consumers on affordable prices in Metro Manila and other key areas nationwide.
Under the MoU, DAR would provide the DA a list of ARBOs that it could enlist in its mobile marketing program to help farmers become economically sustainable while delivering and selling their produce to communities with high incidence of COVID-19 affliction.
Fabillar said the undertaking is in line with DAR's outreach program dubbed "PaSSOver: ARBold Move to Heal as One for Deliverance of our ARBs from the COVID Pandemic" or "ARBold Move."
The project is in recognition to the role of farmers as the modern hero of today’s war against the pandemic, by continually providing food on every household’s table and contributing to food security and sufficiency in the country.
This way, she said, farmers are assured of steady income as they would be linked to the buyers and the public.
Moreover, they would be able to gain greater profit as they will be selling directly to the consumers at much cheaper price, she said.
Fabillar also pointed out that both sellers and buyers will significantly benefit from the program.