R-10’s aggie department updates the city and municipal agriculturists on the F2C2 program implementation of said province.

 

MALAYBALAY CITY, BUKIDNON – The Farm and Fisheries Clustering and Consolidation (F2C2) program of the Department of Agriculture – Regional Field Office 10 (DA-RFO 10), helmed by Regional Executive Director Carlene C. Collado, spearheaded a coordination meeting to discuss matters on the updates of F2C2 clusters enrolled in the province, on March 25, in this city.

About 18 city and municipal agriculturists from Bukidnon were apprised about the F2C2 program mandated by the DA’s Administrative Order No. 27, Series of 2020, which aims to establish the program towards greater inclusive agribusiness development in the country.

According to DA-10 Field Operations Division (FOD) chief Luz I. Guzman, PhD the meeting served as a platform to ensure effective communication, collaboration, and decision-making in delivering various forms of assistance to Bukidnon-clustered farmers and fishers.

“Through this, I hope we can collectively analyze the needs and priorities of the farmers and fishers, identify gaps in existing assistance programs, and develop strategies to address these gaps effectively,” she said.

Meanwhile, DA-10 F2C2 focal person Gay Nanette R. Aleria, together with her team presented the updates on the F2C2 Cluster Development Plan, market-related activities, and capacity-building activities conducted for the province.

Based on the agency’s data for the 2020-2023 period, Region 10 has a total of 154 clustered organizations, with 64% of them coming from Bukidnon.

Guzman also emphasized the importance of F2C2 as a strategy in mainstreaming clustering and consolidation among DA banner programs, attached bureaus, agencies and corporations, and the local government units (LGUs).

“This strategy is important because this will be the basis of our intervention, especially in obtaining big-ticket projects,” she added.
Furthermore, she urged the group to establish a strong partnership with the agency’s F2C2 program to help the identified clustered farmers’ cooperatives, associations come up with their Cluster Development Plan (CDP).

The CDP is the master plan for the growth and development of a cluster through its business enterprise. It shall be a comprehensive, long-term plan that addresses a cluster’s needs for marketing; improvement in productivity, operation and organization development; financing; and sustainability.

Present during the activity is Bukidnon Provincial Operations Center (POC) chief Janet D. Lopez, DVM, and Bukidnon Acting Provincial Agriculturist Jacqueline Julia A. Lagamon.# (RDME)