THE KADIWA market at the May’s Organic Garden in Bacolod City escalated its services by transforming into a “one-stop-shop” not just for the consuming public but also for the farmers and other stakeholders in Negros Occidental.
Ramon Uy Sr. of May’s Organic Garden says this is in response to the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) battlecry of bountiful harvest and prosperous farmers and fisherfolk.
It is a market system that sells major agricultural goods at reasonably low prices to help the poor Filipino households.
The term KADIWA is lightly translated as “one idea, one thought” which is in consonance with the DA Secretary William D. Dar’s “New Thinking” for agriculture paradigm.
According to Uy, they bolstered the operations and scope of a very vital government project which primarily aims to support both farmers and the consumers through a direct production and marketing scheme.
Following this development, May’s Organic Garden has partnered with the DA Region-6 office, Department of Science and Technology, Negros Occidental’s agriculture office, Filipino Inventors Society Multi-Purpose Cooperative (FISMPC) and the Central Philippines State University (CPSU) in order to boost its operations and provide more products to the consumers, at the same time, provide technical interventions and allied services to the farmers.
“Our objective is to give the consuming public with as many options as possible in order to have access to affordable and nutritious food, at the same time, provide the farmers with access to vital information and technology interventions that intends to boost their knowledge and production,” Uy says.
The KADIWA at the May’s Organic Garden is in line with the DA’s concept that directly connects the producers to the consumers.
“Through KADIWA – which is anchored to ‘Ani at Kita’ – we can be sure that farmers get the best prices for their goods, while providing affordable, safe, and nutritious food to the consumers,” Dar said earlier.
KADIWA links the local government units in urban centers to the farmer-producers in the different parts of the country to ease the delivery and distribution of food supply.
In a related another, the DA Region-6 office disclosed that an innovative agricultural project for Western Visayas is now in the pipeline after the concept was presented “virtually” to the Official Development Assistance of Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA-ODA).
The project dubbed Smart Agriculture System Project (SASP), which will need the financial support of KOICA-ODA, is expected to begin in 2022, says DA Regional Executive Director Remelyn R. Recoter.
The SASP aims to increase agricultural productivity and income through the adoption of smart agriculture farming systems using the Information and Communications Technology (ICT)-based model.
It will likewise assess the region’s smart agriculture technology adoption, where the result of which will be utilized to craft a smart agriculture roadmap.
Recoter says that to effectively transfer the technologies down to the grassroots level, the project will also include the capacity development component for agricultural extension workers and farmer intermediaries for the establishment of smart agricultural technology in lowland and upland areas – with and without electricity./PN
