The Association of Negros Producers (ANP) has opened the Bugana Pavilion at its hub along South Capitol Road here to serve as a marketplace for the produce of its assisted small farmers from various localities across the province.
On Friday, its first day of operations, various fruits, vegetables, organic rice, and other crops were already being sold at the site, whose name comes from the Hiligaynon term “bugana”, which means abundant or bountiful.
“Farmers’ products in Bugana are guaranteed to be safe food that can sustain a healthy lifestyle for our consumers,” ANP vice president for natural and organic Elizabeth Mondejar said.
She said the participating farmers’ groups, with about 150 members from the cities of Kabankalan, Silay, and San Carlos and the municipality of Manapla, are part of the two major agriculture programs implemented by the ANP – the OURFood Program and the WeTrace Program: WeTrace Philippines.
ANP president Arlene Infante said agriculture is the latest sector added to their membership category.
“It started with OURFood Program in partnership with the German government. ANP trained the upland farmers of San Carlos in good agricultural practices and at the same time, acted as a consolidator and marketing partner here in Bacolod. After this, the ANP partnered with another German agency for the WeTrace project,” she said.
OURFood aims for the production of safe food and sustainable agriculture for small farmers in Negros while WeTrace is designed to allow farmers to come up with recommendations to improve their production and boost the marketability of their produce.
Infante said the ANP also engaged with the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) through the Community Empowerment through Science and Technology Program, and their initiative in Kabankalan won a cash prize in the regional competition.
“With permission from the DOST and our farmers in Kabankalan, we opted to build this pavilion here as the hub to maximize the benefit that a highly urbanized market can provide our farmers,” she said. (PNA)
