The Kadiwa ni Ani at Kita is helping more vegetable farmers from the Cordillera sell their produce and earn income amid the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) being enforced throughout Luzon.
The Kadiwa ni Ani at Kita Program was launched by DA Secretary William Dar on September 13, 2019 at the Food and Development Center, Taguig City.
Kadiwa is loosely translated as “one idea, one thought” among stakeholders which is in consonance with the Secretary’s “New Thinking” agriculture paradigm.
As a flagship agri-fishery marketing program, the KADIWA ni Ani at Kita sells major agricultural goods at reasonably low prices to help poor Filipino households.
With the implementation of the enhanced community quarantine ECQ), the program has since been fine-tuned to serve more consumers in urban areas and improve market linkages between them and farmer-producers.
The Kadiwa program is using appropriate strategies to market farm produce direct to consumers like the Kadiwa on Wheels Mobile Market and Kadiwa Express that allow people to access food while under the ECQ.
Since March 17, around 7,000 vegetable farmers from the Cordillera were assisted and benefited by the implementation of the “Kadiwa ni Ani at Kita” program, according to the DA-CAR.
Jerry N. Damoyan, chief of DA-CAR Agribusiness Marketing Assistance Division (AMAD), said that farmers earned better as the mark-up of traders accrued to them
On the other hand, “consumers greatly benefitted from the lower price of the fresh vegetables that were brought directly to the community,” Damoyan added.
Meanwhile, the DA-CAR’s activities under the Kadiwa ni Ani at Kita has already traded a total of 389.92 metric tons of assorted vegetables worth Php12,203,600.00. This involved 50 buyers composed of 45 private groups mostly from the National Capital Region and 5 Local Government Units (LGUs) from the provinces of Bulacan and Pangasinan.
Moreover 11 strategic barangays in Baguio City including Tuba, and Kapangan, Benguet were catered to by the’ Kadiwa on Wheels’. A total of 6,290 kilos of assorted vegetables worth Php207,200. 00 were sold during the activity.
While DA-CAR continuously links buyers from Manila with local vegetable farmers, it also maintains the delivery of vegetables to the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) Kadiwa ni Ani at Kita in Quezon City, and for their ‘Kadiwa On Wheels’ activities.
Regional Executive Director Cameron P. Odsey said that the Kadiwa ni Ani at Kita provides our farmers and consumers an opportunity to both benefit from vegetable production and marketing in a manner where all key players win.
He added that the program will be a continuous activity even after the ECQ to support farmers and consumers.
Aside from the Kadiwa ni Ani at Kita activities, the DA continues to issue food passes to ensure unhampered movement of essential food, provide agriculture-related transportation system and market linkages for farmers in relation to the new DA’s Plant! Plant! Plant! Program.**
