Road rehab to boost veggie industry in South Cotabato

THE marketing potentials of vegetables produced in a remote village in the town of Tupi, South Cotabato is getting a major boost with the rehabilitation of a farming road there, an official said.
Tupi Mayor Reynaldo Tamayo Jr. said the road to Barangay Miasong, considered the “vegetable bowl” of South Cotabato, will be improved to enhance the area’s trading activities.
The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has released a special purpose fund worth nearly P9 million to the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to rehabilitate the Cebuano-Linan-Miasong farm-to-market road.
“Soon, vegetable products from Miasong will reach the town’s ‘bagsakan’ [trading] center easily,” he said.
Miasong, the remotest village of Tupi, can be accessed through Barangay Maltana by way of a grueling two-hour ride.
But with the 24-kilometer Cebuano-Linan-Miasong road, local officials say the travel time will be cut by half once the rehabilitation is completed, reportedly in the next few weeks.
Miasong supplies 80 percent of the vegetable requirements of South Cotabato, Sarangani and General Santos City.
The provincial agriculture office earlier estimated that there are 300 hectares of vegetable farms in Miasong.
Vegetables produced in the village are bell peppers, carrots, broccoli, lettuce, cabbage, eggplants, radish and potatoes, among others.
Many of the wet markets in the big malls in Davao City and General Santos City are selling vegetables produced in Miasong.
Reynaldo Legaste, South Cotabato chief agriculturist, earlier proposed the possible expansion of the Roll On-Roll Off (Roro) transport system either in General Santos City or Glan in Sarangani province to facilitate the fast transport of perishable goods from Region 12 to other domestic markets.
He said the Department of Agriculture has been working to develop parts of Region 12 or Central Mindanao region as the country’s next “vegetable basket.” [PNA]