The Department of Agriculture-Cordillera (DA-CAR) has urged collaboration among various sectors to address the recent challenges affecting vegetable growers in the province.

During the Highland Vegetables Stakeholders Dialogue, Jennilyn Dawayan, the officer in charge - Regional Executive Director (OIC-RED), said that the Cordillera region needs collaboration to protect farmers from market exploitation and present genuine assistance.

“We are glad we are pursuing these discussions more inclusively, and this is not the last one we will hold to hear your voices,” Dawayan said.

“There is a better feeling when concerns are appropriately raised and solutions are collectively addressed and decided. Every country has continuously developed with strong private-public collaboration,” she said, addressing the issue of pitting the DA and the local government units (LGUs) against each other.

The DA-CAR described the ecosystem of the vegetable industry to be volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA).

“Volatile, because it is rapidly affected by shocks, like war. Uncertain, because we are still determining when the next typhoon might come that will affect our crops. Complex, because of key players affected by farmers, agricultural supply providers, truckers, trading center operators, government, market facilitators, and consumers. [And lastly,] ambiguous, just as we thought we knew the issues and concerns,” Dawayan explained.

The agriculture sector also hoped that the farmers would be able to make business decisions, have available markets, and/or expand their ventures, as well as produce other crops.

The DA-CAR representative also hoped that farmers could set fair prices for their produce based on the production costs and reasonable markups.

“We long for the day that the farmer is empowered to price their produce firmly based on its production cost (using appropriate technologies that also lower its cost) and a markup,” she stressed.

“He will not be taken advantage of and is being “helped” NOT because the prices in the trading posts are low, but because he is being helped by appropriate market links,” Dawayan added.

During the dialogue, other updates focused on the existing key programs like the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), food safety, Food Lane Project implementation, and government efforts to mitigate the issue of smuggling.

Meanwhile, LGUs also discussed their programs and projects to strengthen farmers to mitigate the effects of RCEP on the vegetable groups.