Banana farming plants hope of progress in Veruela town of AgSur Bautista, KIFAPCO Secretary and a banana farmer, aside from the problems in the field, selling bananas has been unlucrative since many times buyers reject their products.
Having no signal and distant from industrial developments, residents of Barangay Sta. Emilia, Veruela, Agusan del Sur almost lost hopes in improving their lives by selling the only common commodity in the community, the bananas. However, when the Department of Agriculture Philippine Rural Development Project (DA-PRDP) in Caraga intervened in 2018, it restored the farmers lost confidence Caraga INFOCUS
and shed light on the community. Improving Banana Industry The Kinabugawan Farmers Producers Cooperative (KIFAPCO) is one of the Proponent Groups of the I-REAP or Enterprise Component of PRDP. The nine-yearold coop started from 25 members and struggled to establish their coop since it’s in a remote area. According to Maricel
Members were also lost in the marketing operations of the coop, unaware of the financial process and management. In 2018, PRDP funded KIFAPCO with P928,000 for the two interventions: the establishment of a 2-hectare (ha) Lakatan plantation as an expansion to the existing 13-ha Lakatan area of KIFAPCO and a provision for the buying station, weighing scale, and operational fund for its banana production and trading business. The project allowed KIFAPCO to expand its economic activities on buying and selling June 5-11, 2021 |
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