THE Region-6 office of the Department of Agriculture (DA-6) has provided a trading capital amounting to P250,000 to the Boracay Women Producers Cooperative (BWPC) to support the group’s Kadiwa ni Ani at Kita operations.
According to DA-6 Regional Executive Director Remelyn R. Recoter, who spearheaded the recent turnover, the financing assistance extended to the cooperative, commonly known as “Pinay Boracay,” is funded under the Bayanihan Act to Heal as One Act, or Republic Act 11469, to help the group advance its agri-marketing efforts despite the global health pandemic.
“We wanted to support the trading activities of this agricultural-based cooperative located on Boracay Island. The amount that we turned over is the first tranche of the P500,000 financing support allocated for the BWPC. The Kadiwa ni Ani at Kita aims to increase or augment the income of the farmer-members through direct market or linkages, as well as direct product selling to end-users,” Recoter said.
With the funding support provided by the Agriculture department, the BWPC is planning to establish Kadiwa stores with communal gardens in at least 17 different areas on the island for the consolidation and distribution of agri-fishery products to communities and even to the nearby municipalities in the province of Aklan.
Boracay Island has a vast market for food distribution, however, there is no consumer or price watch group to monitoring or control the price of goods yet, or to implement food safety measures over the three privately-owned public markets on the island.
“For the welfare of our food producers and consumers, our cooperative applied for the Kadiwa financial grant program of DA to enable competitive marketing of agri-fishery commodities and processed products on Boracay,” BWPC chair Desiree Segovia explained.
In preparation for the influx of tourists once the economy recuperates, the BWPC said it will utilize 30 percent of the funding support to procure equipment such as cold storage, coconut grinder/scraper, electronic weighing scales, plastic crates, glass display racks and cool boxes for the main Kadiwa Store and sub-outlets.
While 70 percent of the Kadiwa fund is intended for the rolling-over of the group’s trading capital to sustain the consolidation and marketing of agri-fishery produce of the island-based farmers and fisherfolk.
“We are also planning to expand the product lines of our existing wholesale and retail ‘Community Mart’ to sell fresh produce from the BWPC Green House Urban Garden, communal gardens and also from other Aklan farmers,” Segovia added.
With the DA’s financial, technology and extension support, together with the assistance of other government agencies, the Pinay Boracay, formed by self-starter women entrepreneurs, has been involved in the processing of organic vegetables and tropical flowers since its inception in 2013.
The group is also advocating for the serving of safe food through organic agriculture and the use of herbs as natural medicine.
When Boracay was closed for rehabilitation and redevelopment in 2018, the DA’s Agricultural Training Institute assessed and linked the cooperative to the different agricultural programs of the government to boost its agri-marketing and value-adding activities./PN
