DA-10 RED Collado urges OFIS to invest in NorMin agriculture during the Trabaho Negosyo Kabuhayan Webinar.

 

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – Regional Executive Director Carlene C. Collado of the Department of Agriculture-Regional Field Office 10 (DA-RFO 10) urged Overseas Filipino Investors (OFIs) to invest in Northern Mindanao specifically in the agriculture sector, as he graced the Trabaho Negosyo Kabuhayan (TNK) Webinar organized by the Philippine Trade and Investment Center based in Washington DC, USA, on Wednesday, September 29.

Director Collado puts forward convincing growth and promising potentials in the region’s agriculture sector as key investment consideration for OFIs based in the US.

Northern Mindanao is an ideal business location.

The region serves as gateway to various parts of Mindanao and offers key investment advantages such as vast agricultural lands, rich natural resources, expansive road networks, presence of power generation services, and huge potential for industrial development.

Director Collado said OFIs may consider investing in agriculture in the region in many ways. “For one they can utilize the land they have acquired (to start agribusiness) through their relatives. Second, they can lease their lands to big corporations who are engaging in the production of pineapple, papaya, banana and other crops or become a (contract) grower”.

“We can also link them to the LGUs who are in need of property to establish their technology demonstration farms. They can enter into profit-sharing scheme with the said LGUs” he furthered.

Having solidified the region’s reputation as one of the top producers of pineapple, coconut oil, high value crops, fiber-based products, hogs, cattle, goat, carabao and duck, the DA-10 is now priming Coffee and Adlai production as the next-big-things in the region, and potential investment opportunities for overseas Filipinos.

Adlai, a healthy staple substitute to rice and corn now being commercially produced in the region after extensively introduced by the DA-10 to local farmers.

While Robusta and Arabica coffee varieties are massively grown in Bukidnon, predominantly by Indigenous Peoples farmers.

To date, the agency has been providing various production, processing and marketing assistance to spur investment in Adlai and coffee production in the region.

“DA is implementing the OneDA approach wherein DA and its attached agencies, bureaus and corporations are involved in the implementation of projects, so that we can better help the farmers and would-be investors with their needs” Director Collado said.

He also underscored the OneDA family’s initiatives in providing its stakeholders agri-fishery interventions such as farm inputs, infrastructure, machineries and equipment, credit facilities and technical assistance to up the region’s agri-fishery sector.

The TNK Webinar is an avenue to help OFIs to explore investment opportunities back home, particularly in regions favorable for agriculture-related ventures, seizing the silver lining in the midst of the lingering pandemic, and contribute to the country’s economic recovery.# (ATalib)