• CHRYSEE G. SAMILLANO
The Bacolod Sangguniang Panlungsod is requesting the Department of Agriculture to allocate funds to the City of Bacolod, Negros Island Region, in the amount of P750,000,000, for the construction of a City Agri Center with a warehouse and modern cold storage facility.
The resolution authored by Councilor Jude Thaddeus Sayson said the city’s agriculture sector, including its farmers and fisherfolk, is steadily growing, albeit slowly, due to challenges such as scattered production areas, low productivity, lack of post-harvest facilities, insufficient farm-to-market roads, and limited trading and marketing support for producers.
Farmers and fisherfolk have been suffering from low income and indebtedness, as their produce is often bought at very low farm-gate prices by middlemen and brokers due to lack of local government infrastructure for hauling, marketing, and trading, it said.
Other key economic players in the city, including major food and fish traders and importers, have expressed interest in expanding economic activities and investments in the city but have been hindered by the lack of essential facilities such as an agricultural trading center, warehouse, and modern cold storage, the resolution said.
The city government, cognizant of these realities, has been ardently pursuing initiatives to provide an enhancing environment for the agricultural sector to expand production, diversify products, improve trading and retailing services, and steadily increase household income and surplus, it said.
Addressing these issues requires substantial funding to finance the construction of the City Agri Center with a warehouse and modern cold storage, which will entail proper handling and storage of produce, and provide marketing and trading facilities to support the agricultural sector, the resolution said.
The city government operates within a tight balanced budget, including its development fund sourced from the Internal Revenue Allotment (now National Tax Allocation), which limits its capacity to finance major infrastructure projects, it said.
The city government is willing to sit with the concerned officials to be able to submit the requirements to facilitate the provision of funding this project, it added.
Meanwhile, Sayson authored the resolution requesting the DA for allocation of funds through Secretary Francis Tiu-Laurel, who is also head of the Philippine Rural Development Program (PRDP).*
