Farmers in La Castellana town have received all the necessary support from the local government, including marketing and selling their farm produce online.
Personnel of the Office of the Municipal Agriculturist (OMA) assist local farmers in finding a market for their products, especially amid the continuing Kanlaon Volcano crisis on Negros Island.
Farmers have also ventured into social media to help farmers sell their products and earn a living for their families currently taking shelter in evacuation centers, or with friends or relatives outside the six-kilometer extended danger zone (EDZ).
Jeramae Salapante, officer-in-charge of the La Castellana OMA, said some of the high-value crops for sale online, through the La Castellana Incident Management Team Facebook page, include cabbage, pechay, carrots, Baguio beans, bell pepper, chili, tomatoes, and more.
She clarified that farmers, as long as necessary permits are secured, are allowed to return to their farms from 6:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. for the sole purpose of salvaging their unaffected crops.
Salapante pointed out that the local government of La Castellana and the Task Force Kanlaon are properly managing this conditional return to their farmlands within the EDZ, with extraction guidelines in the event of an eruption.
Apart from posting available agricultural products online, the OMA also receives orders from employees of the Negros Occidental Provincial Capitol in Bacolod City and the Department of Social Welfare and Development for its “Walang Gutom” program.
In addition, food managers of evacuation camps buy the ingredients from the OMA for their community kitchen. Hence, internally displaced persons (IDPs) are served with food made from the products of their fellow IDPs.
With this initiative, the official noted that farmers express contentment with the quick and convenient way of selling their products at an appropriate price.
The local government is now looking into the rehabilitation and expansion of their “Bagsakan” or trading center to accommodate more farmers in this initiative.
On concerns about the products being contaminated with sulfur dioxide residue, the OMA clarified that affected plants can be immediately identified through chlorosis or yellowing, wilting and burning effect.
Likewise, the public are urged to thoroughly wash agricultural produce in running water. (PIA-Negros Occidental)