CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – The Department of Agriculture Regional Field Office in region 10 (Northern Mindanao) has promised to work out marketing agreement with the Lantapan Vegetable Farmers Multi-Purpose Cooperative to assist farmers with a possible market tie-up with the cooperative’s existing memorandum of agreement (MOA) with Agri Global Ventures Inc. which offers a better price.
The move came following an incident involving a farmer who dumped his tomato produce in Lantapan town in utter show of disgust after the supposed buyer was willing to buy them at a very low price.
The farmer’s action went viral on social media.
In a statement on Wednesday, July 6, the DA-10, through its Agribusiness and Marketing Assistance Division (AMAD), has validated a Facebook post by a certain Pening Sebuya Gonzales on Tuesday, July 5, showing hundreds of kilos of tomatoes that had been dumped Lantapan town.
The farmer who dumped the tomatoes was identified as Lod Guinayon of Kinati, Barangay Alanib, Lantapan town who was supposedly selling his 56 boxes of tomatoes - which is equivalent to 1,400 kilograms - to Westbound Public Market in Barangay Bulua in this city.
It was said that the prevailing price for unripe and good quality tomatoes at that time was at P300 per box.
However, the DA-10 said that Guinayon’s tomatoes ripened and that the buyer was willing to buy them at P100 to P150 per box.
Disgruntled, the farmer back loaded all his produce and dumped them in an area in Lantapan.
The DA10 said the department continuously provides logistics support and facilities through its “Kadiwa ni Ani at Kita” to the local government units (LGUs), farmer cooperatives and associations which include the LGU Lantapan.
Carlene Collado, the DA-10 regional executive director, urged farmer cooperatives and associations to coordinate with their respective Agriculture Office and to the DA-10, and participate in its program and projects that would capacitate and link them to proper market linkages.