Siquijor embraces F2C2 to achieve food sufficiency in the island

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Created on Wednesday, 20 July 2022

The Province of Siquijor has high hopes on the Farm and Fisheries Clustering and Consolidation (F2C2) program of the Department of Agriculture (DA).

During the F2C2 orientation held recently at Dongsan, Pulangyuta, Siquijor, the incumbent Governor Jake Vincent Villa, in his message, expressed his support to F2C2 and has high hopes that the program will bring equal access to assets, resources, and services for the farmers and its association.

“I believe in the potential of our farmers, and hopefully with this F2C2, we can inspire more new generation of farmer entrepreneurs.”

Gerry Avila, Chief of the Field Operations Division of DA7, said that F2C2 implements an approach or mechanism where farms are being clustered and consolidated to help the farmers improve their livelihood and achieve the economies of scale, ensure better access to markets, financing, and investments for crops, livestock, and fisheries ventures and development, and accelerate the over-all growth and development of the agri-sector.

The F2C2, Avila said encouraged the “Big Brother-Small Brother partnership. The so-called “big brother” is a well-established farmer/fisherfolk associations or cooperatives who will provide support and expertise in the production, processing, and storage technologies and equipment, transport and logistics, and access to finance and marketing networks to their small brother associations. Being the big brother, they will consolidate the farm products of their small brother for bulk selling to the potential buyers.

“As I have observed that Siquijor’s agri-sector is very promising, one of the best in Central Visayas. Our end goal here is food security, increase income and productivity, and we can only do that if we work as a group,”said Avila.

Provincial Agriculturist Emigdio Coritico, also concurred with Avila on the benefits of F2C2. With the clustering program, this will ensure food sufficiency in the province and pave way for the establishment of community business enterprise.

To kick-start the F2C2 implementation in province, various trainings on financial literacy, organizational management, marketing, value orientation, and social preparation will be conducted to better prepare the big brother and small brother associations in the transformation of the agri-sector.

On the other hand, Avila encouraged the farmer associations to avail of loan programs of the Department of Agriculture to finance mechanization and industrialization.

Moreover, he said with the high prices of fertilizers in the market, farmers should adopt balanced fertilization and Bio-N to lessen production cost.

The F2C2 activity was attended by the agricultural extension workers (AEW) from the provincial and municipal offices and 36 farmer associations and cooperatives.


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