OVERSUPPLY of vegetables has forced Nueva Ecija farmers to sell their products at a loss, notably cabbage whose price dropped from a high of P8 a kilo to only P3 per kilo.
Meanwhile, Senator Loren Legarda said the government, particularly the Department of Agriculture, should implement strategic measures to stabilize the market and support local farmers.
Gilbert Cumila, general manager of the Nueva Vizcaya Agricultural Terminal Inc., (NVAT) said the oversupply of vegetables has been on-going since last Jan. 5.
Cumila said prices drastically dropped after fresh supplies came in to the consternation of both the farmers and the market vendors.
The Department of Agriculture in Region 2 reportedly bought 17,000 kilos of vegetables from NVAT which were transported to the Cagayan Valley.
Some charitable groups have also bought vegetables for distribution as food aid.
Cumila appealed to the local governments to buy the cheap vegetables instead of asking the farmers to give it away for free.n
Legarda said while initiatives like rescue buys have been helpful in preventing wastage, she pointed out that a more sustainable solution involves highlighting and utilizing the excess vegetables to address the issue of mass hunger in the country.
She noted that despite being rich in food resources, millions of Filipinos , including the farmers, who are the backbone of the country food production, struggle to afford three meals a day.
Instead of allowing surplus vegetables to go to waste, they should be channelled to feed the hungry and support our agricultural sector, which bears the brunt of financial losses due to plummeting prices, Legarda said.
She added that the government should also invest in agricultural research and infrastructure, enhance water governance and land use policies, provide comprehensive assistance and training programs for agricultural diversification, and promote data-driven information in planting schedule to assist farmers who may have planted without aligning with current demand.
“Legislative support, such as the Zero Food Waste Act of 2022 that I filed in the 19th Congress, should also be vigorously pursued to establish a systematic approach to reducing food waste through redistribution and recycling,” Legarda said.
This comprehensive strategy not only addresses immediate concerns but also contributes to long-term agricultural sustainability, she added.
According to the senator, she supports the rescue buys, but “we must assist our farmers so that there would be no need for them to drop their prices, that limits their income and sometimes they even sell at a loss.”
She said the DA must assist the farmers in accessing more markets for their produce, connect them with consumers, and assist them as early as in the planting stage.
Latest data available from the DA indicate that cabbage prices ranged from P35.00 to P80.00 per kilo as of Jan. 11, lower than the P60 to P80 per kilo range on Dec. 11, 2023.
Rosendo So, chairman of the Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura said the DA deployed trucks to Benguet to help transport the vegetables to Metro Manila, but the problem was really oversupply.
Reports also had it that cabbages delivered to La Trinidad, Benguet were rejected and were disposed of into a cliff in Tinoc, Ifugao.
“Wala pong bumibili at saka mababa ‘yung presyo kaya inuwi na lang namin (There was no buyer and the prices are so low we decided to just go home,” Brent Orlando Pulano, a farmer, said in an interview.
The oversupply comes ahead of the anticipated El Niño phenomenon, which is expected to affect production later this year. The DA, for its part, in December said it had started implementing measures to mitigate the impact of the dry spell on food production.