President Aquino’s call on the private sector to engage in more public- private partnership (PPP) to help improve the lives of Filipinos, gained ground with the country’s largest fastfood chain, Jollibee Foods Corp. entering into a marketing agreement with onion growers of Impasugong, Bukidnon, the first time onions are being grown in Mindanao.
Jollibee commits to buy all the big-size onions, measuring two inches or more that it would use for the pizza production of its subsidiary, Greenwich, and its other fastfood chains. The smaller onions will be sold by the farmers to wet markets in Bukidnon and the neighboring province of Misamis Oriental.
The first onion harvest, which coincided with the World Food Day celebration in the province on Tuesday was attended by officials from the Department of Agriculture, headed by DA Undersecretary for Operations Joel Rudinas and Region 10 director Lealyn Ramos; Gladess Bondoc and Imelda Esteban of the Kaanib Foundation Inc. (who took charge of organizing the farmers), Joseph Curry and Pedro Terry Tuazon III, country representative and manager, respectively, of the Catholic Relief Services, an NGO based in the United States; David Wolf of the US Department of Agriculture; Bukidnon Governor Alex Calingasan, Impasugong Mayor Mario Okinlay; Jollibee Foundation executive director Ma. Gisela Tiongson-Velasco; Gilda Maquilan of JFC for corporate communications and the participating farmers and their families.
In an open forum later, the farmers complained that because the province has very little sunlight “since our climate is wet and very wet, we can’t produce the big-size onions that Jollibee needs.” They asked the company if it would be amenable to buying their smaller sizes as well.
Projections made by the Food and Agriculture Organization showed that the world needs to produce 70 percent more food by 2050 to meet increased demand of a growing population.
The DA’s core agenda combines the government’s social and economic objectives and makes the principles of free enterprise, poverty alleviation and social equality work in a synergistic manner. There are now drought-resistant and submergence-tolerant seeds of palay plus irrigation facilities that are being upgraded alongside the building of more small water impounding projects so that more water will be available during the dry season.
To protect the agriculture sector from import surges, the DA is setting up trading posts or bagsakan and processing centers where farm products can be sorted and rated according to quality so that they all command better prices in the local markets. [PIA Dispatch]
