By RFO5 Correspondent, Sandy Bobbier
Pamplona, Camarines Sur — The AMIA Team of the Department of Agriculture RFO 5 leads the Rapid Value Chain Assessment of Rice and Duck Egg at the AMIA Village in Brgy. Cagbunga, Pamplona, Camarines Sur. The activity conducted last August 29, 2018, was participated by 40-farmer beneficiaries, rice traders, duck egg processors/buyers and staff from the Municipal Agriculture Office of Pamplona.
The AMIA Village is 200-ha rice areas. The community perennially experiences adverse effects of climate-risks such as typhoon, salt-water intrusion, extreme winds, and drought. With the comparative advantage to produce the sizable volume of rice and duck egg, the community has identified rice trading and duck egg production as the proposed enterprise.
Following the value chain segments used by the Philippine Rural Development Project, the participants identified the key actors, constraints, and proposed solutions in the input supply, production, postharvest/processing, and marketing. The chain showed the participants which actors incur most of the costs and bear most the profits.
Initial capital for the rice trading will be sourced out from the roll-back of the inputs provided by the AMIA as agreed by the farmer-beneficiaries. Meanwhile, starter kits for the duck-egg production will be released to the farmer beneficiaries.
The enterprise will also support the need for raw materials of the farmer-beneficiaries trained by TESDA in the community for salted-egg production. Projected volume requirement weekly ranges from 2,000-3,000 duck eggs while a duck egg trader operating in the Camarines Sur is capable of absorbing 500 duck eggs daily.
Results of the value chain will serve as the guide to the upcoming Business Plan Development for Rice Trading, and Duck Egg Production and Trading. As reiterated by Mr. Lorenzo L. Alvina, AMIA Focal, to make the farmers more resilient, an operational enterprise must be set-up and a goal to build an even larger industry suitable in the AMIA Villages should be developed. (SBB)
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