LINGAYEN, PANGASINAN— Governor Ramon V. Guico III seeks to blend traditional farming practices with lucrative methods to transform the agri-business sector into a market-driven sector.
The Provincial Agriculture Office’s Agri-business division has conducted various skills training on crops and fishery production, food processing, package and technologies, institutional and entrepreneurial training to equip Pangasinan farmers.
Provincial Agriculturist Dalisay Moya said the activities were meant to provide local farmers and their families with modern and appropriate technology for better yield. They were also provided trainings in management and marketing skills that will prepare them to eventually become successful agri-entrepreneurs in the future.
In 2024, the agriculture office simultaneously conducted trainings on food processing to 155 members of women associations from the 45 municipalities of the province.
Then the office held 18 trainings on food processing which were participated in by some 390 women from different rural-based organizations in the province.
“These trainings paved a way and become their source of livelihood and will help starting would-be entrepreneurs develop more of their products,” Moya disclosed.
Meanwhile, the province’s “Kadiwa na Kapitolyo’ project is providing regular marketing support to various agricultural products of local farmer-entrepreneurs.
Introduced by President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. and the Department of Agriculture, the KADIWA On-Wheels project has become one of the national government’s market assistance to farmers.
The KADIWA On-Wheels na Kapitolyo, on the other hand, is a collaborative project with the DA along with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), and the National Food Authority (NFA).
From January to November 2024, the KADIWA On-Wheels na Kapitolyo has generated a total sales of P10,657,543.00 with some 1,375 farmer producers and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) actively trading their products.
Based on records, the KADIWA On-Wheels na Kapitolyo has served 26,657 consumers from the months of January to November last year.
(Ruby F. Rayat/PIMRO, photo/OPAG)
