BAGUIO CITY – The Department of Agriculture in the Cordillera Administrative attended the 2024 National PhilGAP Summit in Baybay City, Leyte on October 9-10, 2024.
The national summit, with the theme” Pagkaing Sapat at Ligtas, Responsiblilidad ng Lahat para sa Bagong Pilipinas,” was attended by more than 300 participants to discuss on the challenges and benefits of food safety including the sustainability of grassroots-level agriculture in the country. The highlight of the summit is to further promote the practice of Philippine Good Agricultural Practices (PhilGAP).
In addition, opportunities such as value addition and market linkages that encourage collaboration among stakeholders to strengthen the practice of GAP in the Philippines were given emphasis during the event.
During the updates on by the regional focal persons, Doweno Santiago, Jr. shared the goal of DA-CAR to make GAP the standard of farming in the highlands and to proportionally have PhilGAP certified farmers in all the municipalities in the region.
As of now there are 1,863 active GAP certified farmers in the country, 528 of which are from the Cordillera, which makes the region recognized as having the highest number of GAP-certified farms in the country.
Other key personnel who represented the DA-CAR during the summit were Dr. Kevin Jim Luna, Melchor Tumbaga while Dr. Cristine Esnara and Perla Epie represented DA-ATI-RTC-CAR. By Tan Dulag
