By Rey Anthony Chiu | 08:53 PM February 19, 2022
Governor Arthur Yap has ‘offered’ to the Department of Agriculture (DA) the lot upon which the government could build the Bohol Agriculture Processing Center.
During the recent visit of DA Secretary William Dar to Bohol, Governor Yap presented to the agri-chief and his team, Bohol’s plan to build agricultural produce processing hubs in Bohol to up the price in the raw material available as well as increase the farmer’s incomes.
In one of the events of the secretary’s visit, during the opening of the three-days Kadiwa On Wheels.
Kadiwa a market system which sells major agricultural goods at reasonably low prices to help poor Filipino households.
Coming to Bohol this time when consumers have complained about unreasonable prices on marine, aquaculture and agricultural products, the Kadiwa on Wheels was held at the old Tagbilaran Airport.
During his speech, the governor told Sec Dar that the Provincial Government owns about 6 hectares of the property, part of which was where the event’s Kadiwa stalls were installed.
Mister secretary, this, referring to the open market space, forms part of the six hectares which the Provincial Government owns, the governor shared.
In his presentation to the secretary during the turn-over of interventions at the Bohol Island State University in Tagbilaran, the governor presented four major hubs that would be centered in four areas in the province.
He talked about the mulled high value commercial crops hub focusing, on coffee and cacao in Carmen town, and the coconut processing hub in Balilihan.
The governor also talked about livestock and meat processing center, which he said would be placed in Ubay and the fish and agri products processing in nearby Talibon town.
The governor, also presented his concept on the Agricultural Retail Trading Center as a bagsakan for all agricultural products in Bohol.
But as Sec Dar spoke, he picked up where the governor left off and hinted that the Bohol Agricultural Processing Center.
In fact, the secretary suggested, that it should also act as an agricultural retail terminal and one stop shop for everything pertaining to agriculture, thus becoming the agri-trading in the province.
By that, the secretary means a place where farmers can come to buy fertilizers, seeds, and where they can bring their produce to be sold in retail.
“We can have it here,” Secretary Dar said, intending to put all together an agricultural one stop shop near the city, where farmers can trade their produce.
For the mulled hubs, DA secretary Dar said he would be putting in half a billion pesos for the ambitious infrastructure that could potentially address the irregularly priced goods available in the markets. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)