(Eagle News) — The Department of Agriculture (DA) has allotted around P100-million worth of interventions to support the Philippine onion industry.
The agriculture department has identified the country’s major onion producing regions as Central Luzon, Ilocos, Mimaropa, and Cagayan Valley.
But it said it is also considering “partnering with farmers in the Visayas and Mindanao regions to expand local onion production and assist them with market linkage activities.”
For this year, the DA High Value Crops Development Program (HVCDP) allocated P47.48 million for production support services such as the provision of seeds and seedlings and fertilizers for areas planted with onion.
Other interventions include onion production and post-harvest facilities, irrigation network services, and farm production machinery and equipment that were distributed through the HVCDP with a fund of P35.673 million.
There was also a program funded package of technology trainings worth P1.4 million and onion production research activities amounting to P10.048 million.
The DA said that the interventions would improve productivity in the onion production, and ensure that onion farmers’ cooperatives and associations (FCAs) have ready markets for their produce.
-PH needs to increase onion production to around 280K MT in 5 years-
Based on the Philippine Onion Industry Roadmap 2021–2025 recently published by the DA, the country needs to increase production from 229,539 metric tons to 279,270 metric tons in five years.
This could be done by increasing area planted to onions and increasing productivity to achieve self-sufficiency, the DA said.
The proposed key interventions along the value chain are production clustering, seed support system.
Onion planting in the Philippines starts in September at the earliest up to March, while harvesting starts by December until June. Because of this, higher onion prices can be observed from July to November.
Based on the quarterly bulletin of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the production of onion in second quarter of 2022 was registered at 82.08 thousand metric tons.
This represented an increase by 20.2 percent from 68.27 thousand metric tons output in the same quarter of 2021.
The Bermuda onion was the most produced type, which contributed 98.4 percent to the total onion production during the period. Bermuda onions are described as large and flat, with white or yellow colour and fairly mild taste.
“The largest bulk of production was recorded in MIMAROPA Region with 56.54 thousand metric tons, representing 68.9 percent of the country’s total onion production this quarter. Central Luzon came next with 27.6 percent share,” according to the PSA’s April to June 2022 bulletin.
-Matching onion farmers’ cooperatives with big buyers-
The DA said that as of August 28 this year, it has also matched different farmers’ cooperatives and associations (FCAs) with big buyers for the delivery of about 82,442 kilos of onions and shallots worth P3.228 million since February this year.
The department’s management said it is holding regular consultations and dialogies with various onion stakeholders including farmer-leaders, traders, and buyers, among others.
Last yar, the DA said that it has awarded delivery trucks and hauling vans amounting to P6.1 million to farmers involved in onion production and marketing.
The DA said it has been promoting demand-driven production.
(Eagle News Service)