Five days after officially taking over the post as the new chief of the Department of Agriculture (DA), Secretary Emmanuel “Manny” Piñol on July 6 and 7 visited the Province of Oriental Mindoro.

During Secretary Piñol’s first ever official visit, he congratulated the Naujan Farmers Association (NaFA) for successfully completing its Oriental Mindoro Calamansi Trading Center sub-project with PRDP.

The calamansi trading center in Oriental Mindoro is one of the pilot sub-projects implemented by PRDP not just in the South Luzon Cluster, but also in the entire country. Since its implementation in 2013, it has benefited at least 293 farmers.

Through the trading center, the farmer-suppliers receive at least P12 per kilo of calamansi instead of P5, which is the prevailing market price during the peak season.

“Ang binago ngayon nang magkaroon tayo ng trading center, bago magdala si farmer ng calamansi, alam na niya kung magkano ang presyo dahil mayroon na kaming mga institutional buyer and mga processor sa Manila (Through the trading center the farmers now know in advance how much their calamansi will cost, because we already have our institutional buyers and processors in Manila),” said NaFA President Conrado Balmes.

DA MIMAROPA Regional Executive Director, Atty. Cipriano Santiago, also encouraged NaFA to finalize their business plan to launch a calamansi processing center.

While NaFA currently trades fresh fruit, it also eyes processing calamansi powder or puree since its supply of calamansi is enough to cater the said markets.

According to Piñol, NaFA should move towards a new venture especially if they have the capability to do so. Once approved, the proposed processing center will be established under PRDP in cooperation with the Department of Science and Technology.

Upon the Secretary’s arrival at the Trading Center, he was accommodated by Balmes who presented the sub-project’s current status and future targets.

NaFA will partner with the Tadyawan Tribe, one of Mindoro’s Mangyan community, who requested assistance for the marketing of their calamansi harvest. The partnership will provide additional supply of calamansi during the peak season and a source of income for the Mangyan.

PRDP National Project Coordination Office Deputy Project Director Arnel De Mesa also introduced PRDP’s other ongoing sub-projects in Oriental Mindoro. These are the two farm-to-market roads (FMRs) under construction in Victoria (Bagong Silang–Macatoc) and Baco (Dulangan I–Dulangan II). The said FMRs support PRDP’s goal to further develop Oriental Mindoro’s calamansi industry by providing access roads.

PRDP National Project Coordination Office Deputy Project Director Arnel De Mesa (right) and DA MIMAROPA Regional Executive Director Cipriano Santiago (left) discuss with Secretary Manny Piñol (center) the status of PRDP sub-projects in Oriental Mindoro. (Photo by Elmo Morillo, DA-PRDP RPCO 4B InfoACE Unit)

The Oriental Mindoro Calamansi Trading Center with a counterpart buying station in Victoria has a fund worth P12.03 million. It aims to provide a more systematic marketing arrangement especially for small-scale calamansi growers by collecting their individual harvests to cater bulk buyers. This practice is expected to change the current trading system of calamansi in the province by improving the market price for farmers and the quality of supply for consumers.

The two-day itinerary of the DA Secretary’s visit to Oriental Mindoro started in Pola at a Mangyan community where Piñol held a meeting with the Tadyawan Tribe. The DA MIMAROPA team delivered an initial set of farm goods while, at the same time, noting the community’s further agricultural needs. Piñol also attended a farmer’s forum at the Agricultural Training Institute’s Integrated Learning and 4-H Camp in Bongabong before returning to Calapan City. ### (Leira Vic Colongon, DA-PRDP RPCO 4B InfoACE Unit)