Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary William D. Dar reiterated the importance of organizing farms under the Farm and Fisheries Clustering and Consolidation (F2C2) program during the last day of the DA-F2C2 Island-Wide Cluster Summit for MIMAROPA, CALABARZON, and Bicol Regions on June 24, 2022.

As per the Administrative Order No. 27, s. 2020 signed by Secretary Dar, the F2C2 Program reinforces the country’s small farmers and fishers through clustering and consolidation of their production, processing, and marketing activities, as well as the pooling of all forms of available resources, as community business enterprises.

The F2C2 Program, the Secretary explained, is capable of capacitating members, conducting technology transfers, and leveraging the economies of scale to conduct business.

“We are hoping that this social engineering that we are doing-consolidation and clustering-will start the process of collective action,” he added.

To further enhance the potentials of the said program, the DA chief called for the following measures:

• the increasing of allowed agricultural land ownership to four (4) hectares per individual through legislation;
• the creation of the Bureau of Agri-Industry Cooperatives under the DA to promote institutional development of agri-fishery cooperatives and associations;
• the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) to perform more in capacitating and developing the country’s agricultural cooperatives and associations;
• the local government units (LGUs) to take more initiative in accomplishing the DA’s devolved functions; and
• the return of the agricultural extension units of local government units back to the DA.

In his message, Secretary Dar called for unified actions to combat the current food crisis, which was compounded by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine crisis.

“Tumataas na lahat ng presyo ng agricultural inputs at lahat ng pagkain. Talagang magbanat-buto po tayo dapat. Let’s be one again in saving this country. Let’s be one in protecting our farmers. Let’s produce as much food as we can during this period of crisis,” the DA chief urged.

The Summit, which was held from June 20-24, 2022 at the Queen Margarette Hotel in Lucena City, was attended by 200 representatives from various farmers’ cooperatives and associations (FCAs), the academe, the private sector, and local government units from the CALABARZON, MIMAROPA, and Bicol Regions. ### (Krystelle Ymari A. Vergara, DA-AFID)