Pagdanganan pushes ARC products

Agrarian Reform Secretary Roberto M. Pagdanganan is urging various sectors to promote the marketability of agricultural products in various agrarian reform communities (ARC) nationwide.

Pagdanganan is also seeking to build up linkages for new collaborations and information exchange between service providers and farmers, and intensify public awareness in agrarian reform and rural development.

"Our ARC products are of the best quality. They are at par with the best in the world. That is why we intend to hit, not only the local market, but the international market as well," Pagdanganan said.

In a related development, Pagdanganan formally opened last Wednesday the Agraryo Trade Fair 2003, a yearly display of the finest products of agrarian reform beneficiaries.

Among the ARC products on display at the SM Mega Trade Hall 2 include sweet delicacies, fresh fruits and vegetables, health juices, wine made from indigenous fruits like duhat, nipa and sugarcane, herbal tea and medicines, wall decors, native and ethnic clothes, native handicrafts, and men’s and ladies’ accessories made of wood, shells and marbles.

Others that are expected to draw consumers’ and potential investment partners’ interests include demo seminars for bread making, pasta making, fish processing, squid flakes making and squash pancit canton making.

Pagdanganan said a total of 114 farmers’ cooperatives took part in the five-day event, which he described as the opening salvo in the government’s war against poverty..

Joining Pagdanganan in what he called the "mother of all wars," were Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) president Margarito Teves, Agriculture Undersecretary Celestino Martinez Jr., Trade and Industry Undersecretary Nellie Villafuerte and Antonio Ortiz, executive director of the National Livelihood Support Fund, among others.

Mya Maung, director general of the Center on Integrated Rural Development for Asia and the Pacific (CIRDAP), was also present to express support in this momentous event, which is being replicated in different regions in the country.

The exposition of the farmers’ produce and entrepreneurial initiatives are made possible with the assistance of CIRDAP and the University of the Philippines College off Home Economics Foundation.