MANKAYAN, Benguet – The municipal government urged farmers in the town’s vegetable-producing barangays to enhance their good agricultural practices to help them gain adequate market for their agricultural produce.
Mayor Frenzel A. Ayong stated that experts from the agriculture department and the provincial agriculture office were in the municipality over the past several days to provide the needed information and education to the farmers on how to further enhance their respective good agricultural practices to be able to produce better agricultural crops.
Hundreds of farmers from the vegetable-producing barangays were invited by the municipal government to join the good agricultural practices training for them to learn the latest techniques on how to further improve the quality of their produce and get better prices for their products.
Mayor Ayong was elated to learn that majority of the farmers in the municipality have been issued certification for their good agricultural practices that allowed them to gain more buyers and better buying prices for their produce that translated to better income opportunities.
According to him, farmers who completed the initial training will undergo the required processes for them to acquire the prescribed certification they complied with good agricultural practices being advocated by the agriculture department, the provincial agriculture office and the municipal agriculture office.
Based on the data obtained from the agriculture department, Mankayan is the only local government in the Cordillera with most of its farmers issued the good agricultural practices (GAP) certification being required by most buyers of agricultural produce from various parts of the country.
The municipal chief executive urged farmers who were issued the required GAP certification to avail of upcoming GAP trainings in order meet the huge demand for GAP-certified produce and earn better income.
On the other hand, he expressed his gratitude to the agriculture department and the provincial agriculture office for selecting farmers from the vegetable-producing areas in the municipality as beneficiaries for the initial trainings and the other processes prescribed for the eventual issuance of the required GAP certification.
The municipal mayor emphasized that farmers should not hesitate to enhance their existing practices that opens greater opportunities for them to gain better markets and command increased buying market for their products.
He asserted that farmers should always avail of the training to gain added skills and knowledge towards better opportunities for production because of the increasing opportunities in the global market. By HENT
