Agri dept embarks on legacy program to enhance inclusion in Sariaya, Quezon

Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala has come up with an agricultural initiative whose impact, four years after a touch-and-go game on the intricacies of the business, has produced what could become his legacy to the country’s efforts at financial inclusion.

This initiative, now playing out in Sariaya, Quezon, has already produced remarkable results in all aspects of the financial-inclusion process as well as in the government’s efforts to bring down the prices of agricultural products.

The unassuming agriculture chief has quietly trotted on his own agricultural initiative, which in one fell swoop brought forth a new era of empowerment for farmers, not just from Quezon province, but even from afar.

Started in 2004, and funded with seed money that the-then Congressman Alcala sourced from his funding needs, the Sariaya trading post is now a bustling beehive of activity where farmers, traders and small and medium enterprises  deal on vegetables and fruits.

These traders  gravitate toward the place in a whorl of activity that has jacked up the income potential of farmers in the Quezon province and in places as far as Baguio and Tacloban City.

Before the establishment of the trading post, named  Sentrong Pamilihan ng Produktong  Agrikultura ng Quezon , farmers in Sariaya and other municipalities in Quezon such as Candelaria, Lucena, Pagbilao and Lucban, were at the tender mercies of traders.

Many a time in the past, the farmers lost money as their produce did not even match what they had invested in terms of farm inputs. Worse, their losses sometimes mounted so much more when they had to chase after the traders’ much-lower quotes for fear that their produce could start rotting before they could sell.

This was what motivated Alcala to toy with the trading-post idea to rescue farmers from the trap. The need to shore up the income of farmers under his watch while also reducing the layers of trade between the farmers and the traders was what consumed him.

But as in other precedent-setting enterprises, the Sariaya trading post went through some start-up hiccups where it lost money in its opening year and three years after—until after the members of the foundation that oversaw the facility came out with some out-of-the-box ideas on how to make the facility finally earn, as they had hoped.

Sitting on a vacant land owned by the government, the Sariaya facility is situated along the major thoroughfare that connects Quezon to the rest of the country. And in this piece of land, Baguio beans and Tacloban fruits compete with those from Mindanao for a piece of the action.

What Alcala began as a simple to-do to make the farmers in his hometown be independent and free from the hazards of the middlemen who buy the produce at their quoted prices has now started to grow into a movement of sorts.

Now, other facilities are being set up, as we write this piece, in different parts of the country, with the officials of the Sariaya trading post doing the lecture rounds to empower the others in far-flung areas where the trading posts are to be located.

Here, one sees a piece of the thinking of Alcala, whose administration is being faulted for the rice smuggling that remains unabated in the country, if reports are to be believed. And yet, Alcala, though admitting it was his fault that the rice self-sufficiency was not achieved, thinks his own rice program has been successful.

“As the captain ball,”  Alcala told mediamen in one forum, “ I admit to my failure to hit the rice self-sufficiency target.” But he added that he had actually increased rice production by 16 percentage points.

What is noticeable among the farmers in Sariaya and neighboring towns these days is they way they have been so empowered, with many of them diversifying into other businesses.

And the stories are as interesting as the compelling message of the financial success of these little farmers who subscribe to the dictum of Alcala that agriculture is what the country needs to achieve the financial- inclusion target that has so far eluded us, despite the growth that has made the Philippines an economic darling in Asia.

There is the story of one farmer who was scammed of his placement money when he tried to join other farmers and residents in Quezon who only had two options: either to go abroad or be employed in an electronics firm located in export zones.

He lost his placement money but in retrospect, he said it was a sort of a “blessing in disguise,” one face-saving way by which many Filipinos accept their own fault, in this particular case, of not having checked on the truth of an available job opening in Taiwan.

He said the sad experience taught him to be more careful, to persevere and try his luck somewhere. He said he has practically solved all his money woes and that, together with other officials of the foundation, he now wants to share his good fortune with fellow farmers not only in Quezon but also elsewhere, by urging them to help set up a trading station to empower them and enable them to go beyond just putting food on their table.

These successful farmers are now employing their own neighbors aside from the fact that they are contributing to the growth of agriculture and the country.

Alcala’s trading-post idea is now a pivotal agriculture initiative that the government could take advantage of in the wake of the calamitous events that now bedevil many of the overseas Filipino workers in Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries with the precipitous decline in the price of crude oil.