Panayam kay Arnel de Mesa, Spokesperson, Dept. of Agriculture (January 10, 2024) | UB - video Dailymotion

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Transcript

00:00 We will talk to Department of Agriculture spokesperson, Assistant Secretary Arnel Demesa.

00:05 Asek Demesa, good morning.

00:07 Good morning, Susan. To all the listeners and viewers, good morning.

00:11 Asek, please confirm, is there an oversupply of vegetables today?

00:15 That's why we are only seeing the piles of vegetables on the sides of the road.

00:20 Actually, Susan, in the report of our regional field office in Cordillera,

00:26 together with the local governments, we confirmed that there is no oversupply of vegetables here in Baguio Trading Center,

00:38 as well as in La Trinidad.

00:40 In fact, there is a small reduction in our production in 2023 compared to 2022.

00:51 If that's the case, Asek, why is it that farmers are choosing to store vegetables on the road instead of bringing it to the family farm?

01:01 If you're saying that there is actually a shortage, a reduction in the production of vegetables.

01:06 That's not a shortage. What happened, Susan, is that in the first three days of January,

01:14 in our trading center, the number of vegetables purchased was small in the first three days and there was a small drop in the tracking.

01:24 Because of this, some vegetables that should be traded that day were not traded and there was a long queue.

01:35 That's why some of the deteriorated vegetables, if not given for free, were sold for cheap.

01:43 Actually, since January 8, our trading in our trading centers in La Trinidad and Baguio became normal again.

01:55 We can see that as of 2 p.m., it's decreasing again and the price is returning to normal for the vegetables,

02:08 especially the cabbage, wombok and carrots.

02:12 For example, if you're in Metro Manila and you see that vegetables are being stored on the side of the road,

02:19 it's embarrassing because the price is different here.

02:23 Anyway, what can the Department of Agriculture do to avoid the rotting of vegetables in this situation?

02:31 As you said, you bought a small amount and it's already rotting. What intervention can the Department of Agriculture do?

02:39 With our assistance in our offices in the region and in the LGUs,

02:44 we agreed to install additional trading posts in the mountain province. We also did clustering and consolidation of farms there.

02:56 Another intervention is that the local governments will have what we call zoning of our crop production.

03:06 Can you see here that one of the reasons for this is the problem of farm-to-market delivery, Asec?

03:15 I want to report, Susan, and our President also reported that within one and a half year,

03:24 the target of farm-to-market road is 131,410 kilometers.

03:31 In six years, more than 51 percent have been completed. This is 67,329 kilometers in total.

03:41 We expect that within a short time, the remaining 64,000 kilometers of balance will be completed soon.

03:51 I hope that will help our farmers in Benguet so we won't have to face such incidents where vegetables are rotting or thrown away.

04:02 Anyway, thank you very much Asec Arnel Demesa. Good morning to you.

04:06 Good morning Susan. Long live to you.

04:09 [News broadcast]

04:22 [Music]

Panayam kay Arnel de Mesa, Spokesperson, Dept. of Agriculture (January 10, 2024) | UB

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