BONGABON, Nueva Ecija – With red onions priced at P36 to P40 a kilo, farmers’ days here were spiced up to enjoy the action-packed nine-day activity called Sibuyasan Festival here that started on April 2.
Farmers could also gamely throw a call on the Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI’s) provincial director Brigida Pili when she asked them to utter “here, getting richer” as a response to greetings “how are you?”
Onion, the town’s highly popularized product, was the main feature of the festival particularly during the farmers’ day and street dancing competition from April 7-8, respectively.
Mayor Amelia Gamilla said farmers were in high spirit as they joined the festivity aimed at uplifting the morale of farmers who have actually suffered from heavy losses for the last five years.
“Now you can see that everybody is happy,” the mayor said of her constituents. “It is a fitting tribute to our farmers who serve as engine of our development,” she said.
Gamilla also said at least 3,500 hectares of farmland here are planted to onion, including yellow grannex.
Students on onion themed outfits presented numbers before officials from the Department of Agriculture (DA), DTI, and local government units (LGU).
Some farmers showed their prowess in eating uncooked yellow and red onion of large sizes at the town plaza while employees of the local agriculture office enticed people to prepare food dishes with the bulbs.
Pili said that onion has been identified as this town’s one town one product (OTOP) thus a multi-agency effort is being exerted to make it viable.
“We are negotiating with the market, including well-known fastfood chains,” she said.
Dante De Lima, outgoing director of the DA’s high value crop development division, said the country has produced enough supply of red creoles.
“But we have the problem with the yellow,” he said noting that the latter has shorter shelf life.
He said the country runs short of yellow grannex from November to January of every year.
“We have already decided not to issue an import permit for red onion. However, you have to work hard to produce the requirement for yellow onion,” he told farmers.
Some P10.4 million funds for postharvest facilities further spiced up the occasion. De Lima handed over the check to local officials and farmer organizations.
Gamilla said the amount will be used to create a hanging drying facility to cope up with expensive cold storage fees for onion.
Farmers could also gamely throw a call on the Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI’s) provincial director Brigida Pili when she asked them to utter “here, getting richer” as a response to greetings “how are you?”
Onion, the town’s highly popularized product, was the main feature of the festival particularly during the farmers’ day and street dancing competition from April 7-8, respectively.
Mayor Amelia Gamilla said farmers were in high spirit as they joined the festivity aimed at uplifting the morale of farmers who have actually suffered from heavy losses for the last five years.
“Now you can see that everybody is happy,” the mayor said of her constituents. “It is a fitting tribute to our farmers who serve as engine of our development,” she said.
Gamilla also said at least 3,500 hectares of farmland here are planted to onion, including yellow grannex.
Students on onion themed outfits presented numbers before officials from the Department of Agriculture (DA), DTI, and local government units (LGU).
Some farmers showed their prowess in eating uncooked yellow and red onion of large sizes at the town plaza while employees of the local agriculture office enticed people to prepare food dishes with the bulbs.
Pili said that onion has been identified as this town’s one town one product (OTOP) thus a multi-agency effort is being exerted to make it viable.
“We are negotiating with the market, including well-known fastfood chains,” she said.
Dante De Lima, outgoing director of the DA’s high value crop development division, said the country has produced enough supply of red creoles.
“But we have the problem with the yellow,” he said noting that the latter has shorter shelf life.
He said the country runs short of yellow grannex from November to January of every year.
“We have already decided not to issue an import permit for red onion. However, you have to work hard to produce the requirement for yellow onion,” he told farmers.
Some P10.4 million funds for postharvest facilities further spiced up the occasion. De Lima handed over the check to local officials and farmer organizations.
Gamilla said the amount will be used to create a hanging drying facility to cope up with expensive cold storage fees for onion.
