Farmers Plan for Crop Season 2021-22

Jose Abelardo Mai

Vegetable farmers and stakeholders, as well as buyers, wholesalers and representatives from the Government met today for the National Vegetable Projection Crop Season 2021-2022.  The purpose of the meeting was to plan for this year’s planting season.  The farmers are planning to plant more of certain crops based on high demands this past year. But while those demands have encouraged them to produce more, Minister of Agriculture Jose Abelardo Mai says sometimes progress brings problems.  The balancing act will be between producing just enough and having the proper storage and distribution systems in place.

Jose Abelardo Mai, Minister of Agriculture

“The farmers had a record year this year. Most if not all of their product that was planted was harvested and was sold at reasonable prices. There was very minimal losses. There was a well controlled system for illegal importation. So the farmers made well this year. And we are happy for that. As a result of that, our extension officers have been in the field collecting data to see what is the farmers’ intention this year, as we approach the planting season. We have had interest from farmers for example, potatoes, we are sure now, potato production this year, they’re going to plant one hundred percent more than last year. A hundred percent potatoes, onions, we have forty percent increase, carrots 50 percent increase, lettuce one hundred percent increase, one hundred percent increase or flour, broccoli and celery. If you look at this on the official side you will say that’s good; everybody wants to produce more. More production brings challenges and we have to inform the farmers that while we have national consumption, it is consumed over a period of time. So, the amount that is going to be planted is my concern; the consumption per week is my concern, it should be our concern; storage and distribution is a concern. So what we are telling them is that we are monitoring carefully how much we are planting. They are happy, they did well and they say, well, the normal human reaction if we did well 2021, we wa plant more and do better 2022. It is not necessarily like this when it comes to vegetables and fruits because they are perishables. We must have the mechanisms in place, the structure in place to store properly, and the distribution. So, they are now listening and looking at the numbers and concerns too, so planning is very important here; staggering the production is critically important, although there’s only so much you can do with staggering because there’s only a window in which you can plant.”