DAVAO CITY — Vegetable farming in Maragusan, Compostela Valley Province will be given a boost as a tramline system will soon be established in their area.
The first in Mindanao, the tramline or cable car system is an aerial lift transport that hauls cargo above the ground by means of a cable and is a solution to the problem of transporting products from inaccessible farms to the nearest road network. The Maragusan tram technology will be used to transport vegetables and other agricultural products from mountainous areas.
Department of Agriculture (DA) secretary Arthur Yap in his recent visit has turned-over 5.1 million pesos to Compostela Valley governor Arturo Uy and Maragusan mayor Cesar Colina to construct an initial three tramlines.
“The transport system is cost-effective, considering the huge financial requirement in building roads in the area,” Yap cited.
DA regional director Roger Chio said his office had long seen the potentials of Maragusan to be a major vegetable producing area in the region.
“Maragusan’s cool climate is suited for production of high value vegetables. The only limitation for vegetable expansion is that most of the areas are in the highlands, making it difficult for farmers to transport their produce,” Chio said.
Chio said through this alternative transport technology being promoted by the Bureau of Postharvest Research and Extension (BPRE), an attached bureau under DA, with funds from the High Value Commercial Crops (HVCC) program in the region and in collaboration with the Compostela Valley provincial government and Maragusan local government to establish three agricultural tramlines in the said town.
Speaking on behalf of the farmer beneficiaries, Colina said the establishment of tramline system will significantly improve post-harvest handling of vegetable production in their town.
“About 30 to 40 percent of the market value of our upland farmers’ products goes to hauling alone. Improper handling of vegetables also affects the quality of their products which results to cheaper buying price,” Colina said.
“Now that the DA-HVCC has provided us the funds to put up at least three tramline systems, we can now improve handling of farmers’ products which in turn would increase their productivity and income,” he added. (DA XI/PIA XI)
IMPORTANT NOTICE: INBOX is an archive of press releases, statements, announcements, letters to the editors, and manifestos sent to Davao Today for publication. Please email your materials to davaotoday@gmail.com. Davao Today is not responsible for the content of these
materials. The opinion expessed in these items does not reflect those of Davao Today and its staff. Please refer to our terms of use/disclaimer.
