Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Secretary John R. Castriciones on Friday cited the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) for its support to the department’s war against hunger and poverty.
He noted that the BJMP has recognized the need to help strengthen the farming sector when it opened itself up as a marketing outlet for farmers' products through the “Enhanced Partnership Against Hunger and Poverty (EPAHP).”
“Poverty is getting widespread and so with unemployment because of the decline of the economy. More business firms are closing shop here and abroad, resulting in a great number of overseas Filipino workers returning home. It is only the agriculture industry that is keeping our economy afloat,” Castriciones said.
Cabinet Secretary Karlo Alexei Nograles said the government is "looking forward to zero hunger by the year 2030.”
Nograles said more government agencies, including the local government units (LGUs) are expressing their desire to join the initiative against hunger and poverty, an indication that a promising future lies ahead for the country’s agriculture industry.
DAR Undersecretary for Support Services Office Emily O. Padilla said “the BJMP centers in all but three of the country’s 16 regions have committed to buy their daily supply of food – rice, vegetables, fish, and meat from agrarian reform beneficiaries organizations (ARBOs) as their simple way of helping farmers find regular buyers of their harvests and other farm goods.’’
“By its (BJMP) commitment, our farmers will be spared from dealing with middlemen or traders, who are usually buying the farmers’ produce at a very low price,” Padilla said.
Officials from the BJMP detention centers in Central Visayas and Central Mindanao earlier forged agreements with the different ARBOs to firm up their buyer-seller relationships.
Padilla said schedules are already set for the remaining three regions, Cagayan Valley (Region 2), the National Capital Region, and the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), to sign memoranda of understanding between the DAR and the BJMP.