Barter system adopted to enable Bayanihan mindset farmers

Farmer-members of the Kalipunan ng mga Magsasaka sa Patnongon (KAMAPAT) in Antique employ the barter or ‘bayluhanay’ system to sustain the community pantry they opened on May 11, 2021.

They aim to alleviate the plight of the marginal sector and uphold the Bayanihan spirit as they counter the constraints of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

KAMAPAT president and general manager Henry Doliguez said they initiated the move to pay forward the interventions and support they availed from the Department of Agriculture (DA) and other government agencies in addressing the varied concerns of Patnongon farmers from production to marketing aspects.

“Ginahalad sang KAMAPAT ang ini nga community pantry bangud man sa pagpaninguha sang mga mangunguma sa tunga sang pandemya. Tinutuyo namon nga indi sila magutuman. Ginaagda namon sanda nga magdala sang bisan anu nga produkto halin sa anda taramnan ukon ugsaran kag para bayluhan sang iban pa guid nila nga kinahanglan. Pamaagi sa barter system, ma sustinar namon ang diya nga community pantry,” said Doliguez.

He also commended the Municipal Agriculture Office headed by Bernardita Salvador and the 36 farmers and irrigators’ associations in Patnongon for supporting the cause in ensuring food adequacy down to barangay level. Small farmers bring in whatever surplus crops and vegetables they have to the pantry in exchange for other commodities and groceries they need.

A one and a half-year-old federation of farmers associations in Patnongon, KAMAPAT had speedily advanced its growth in establishing a steady and sustainable marketing system. They attributed their progress to the interventions of the DA, Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), provincial and local government units.

KAMAPAT became one of the 10 recipients regionwide of the KOICA’s Bayanihan Tipon Center (BTC) under the Panay Island Upland Sustainable Rural Development Project. The agribusiness facility granted to the association in 2019 became a marketing and consolidation hub for crops, poultry, and livestock products cultivated in lowland and highland areas. Besides the BTC, KAMAPAT also received trading capital and a delivery truck from KOICA to back up their buying and selling activities.

“More than a year of our operations, we generated savings to procure another unit of a truck that will be used in the hauling of farmers’ products even from the most remote barangays in Patnongon to the BTC,” added Doliguez.

He said that providing logistic support is necessary for farmers to save on expenses and ease the drudgery of hauling their products to the market, thus increasing their net income in farming.

Doliguez also mentioned that the initial ₱500,000.00 KADIWA fund they accessed from the DA through the Agribusiness and Marketing Assistance Division furthered their palay trading and buying of ‘pinakbet’ or lowland vegetables from Patnongon farmers.

DA Western Visayas Regional Executive Director Remelyn Recoter lauded the management of KAMAPAT for establishing a community pantry.

“This is the organization’s way of giving back to the community the development the Patnongon Bayanihan Tipon Center has achieved. It started small and the BTC is getting bigger and bigger not only serving the member farmers in Patnongon, Antique, but the whole of the Province of Antique and also other parts of Panay Island,” Recoter said.  (Sheila Mae H. Toreno/DA-RAFIS 6)