Amid the soaring retail prices of red onions in the markets, a former Agriculture chief has pushed for the establishment of an onion experimental farm in Central Mindanao to help reintroduce onion farming in the country.
In a Facebook post Monday, former Department of Agriculture (DA) secretary Emmanuel Piñol said the planned experimental onion farm would help boost local production.
“The idea of reintroducing onion farming came about following my journeys to the vast countryside of Central Mindanao, where farmers told me that they planted onion in the past but gave up because of the low buying price,” he said.
Piñol said the initiative is the only way to fight the onion cartel and ensure that onions – oftentimes bought from farmers at only PHP20 during peak harvest season – will not be hoarded and sold at the exorbitant rates ranging from PHP600-PHP700 per kilo.
The DA earlier said it will be compelled to resort to importation if the price of onion continues to rise.
Piñol claimed that the problem of onion supply and pricing in the country is controlled by a cartel of importers and traders who operate the cold storage facilities.
“Mindanao will lead the fight to liberate our onion farmers from the cartels’ control and protect our consumers from outrageous prices beyond the reach of Filipino families,” he said.
While it will be a private sector initiative, he said he will ask for the help of the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI), led by Director Remelyn Recoter, and the DA-Soccsksargen Region under Dr. Sailila Abdula to realize the plan.
“Onion, both white and red, could be grown in several parts of the country and even farmers in Mindanao had tried planting the crop before, but the deterrent had always been the instability of the buying price,” Piñol said.
During his stint as the DA chief, he said the government managed to address the problem by establishing more cold storage facilities.
“The Central Mindanao Onion Production Initiative which I will personally lead will involve the complete value chain where farmers, with the help of ATI and DA, will be taught onion farming technology,” he said. (PNA)
