As part of the DA’s commitment to assisting farmers in maintaining the quality of their produce and in preventing post-harvest losses, Department of Agriculture (DA) Assistant Secretary for Logistics Daniel Atayde personally inspected the proposed sites for the establishment of solar powered modular cold storage facilities this FY 2025.
Two areas were inspected by ASec Atayde, particularly the proposed facility site of the Taloy Farmers’ Cooperative (TAFARMCO) and the Wangal Sports Complex in La Trinidad, Benguet where a modular cold storage facility will be built.
“This initiative is the DA’s response to providing post-harvest equipment particularly a 40-feet solar powered modular cold storage facility to Farmers Cooperatives and Associations like the Taloy Farmers’ Multi Purpose Cooperative, and the Provincial Government of Benguet to be based in Wangal, La Trinidad. This will help preserve the shelf life of agricultural products coming from Benguet and other areas in CAR, to store and properly consolidate the agricultural products, aside from the strategic area where the facility is located for an efficient transport of products to institutional markets outside the region,” Atayde said.
Registered with the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA), TAFARMCO’s four-story main building located in Taloy Sur, Tuba, Benguet is situated in a 3.8 hectares land area. It currently houses TAFARMCO’s administrative and finance personnel. An area measuring 9 x 36 meters was already reserved for the 40-feet solar powered modular cold storage facility to be provided by the DA this year.
“This area of TAFARMCO is very strategic in a sense that it is closer for the transport of high value crops produced by its members to institutional buyers, making travel time and expenses lesser. Their proposal from the Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) for the construction of a packaging center will complement the use of the solar powered modular cold storage facility that will be built within the cooperative’s land area,” Atayde added.
TAFARMCO submitted a project proposal to the DA-PRDP for the construction of a packaging center that will act as an agri-food and processing hub situated near the proposed site of the modular cold storage facility.
The cooperative currently has 14,000 members composed of 80-percent farmers and 20-percent entrepreneurs coming from Baguio City, Atok, Buguis, and La Trinidad in Benguet, and Tinoc, Ifugao. The farmer’s cooperative started its operations in 1999 and have partnered with institutional markets that directly buy their agricultural products. Of the 14,000 member, 5,130 individuals are engaged with the production of high value crops.
TAFARMCO Business Center Development Manager Mary Luz Tino explained that at present, the cooperative has partnered with 12 institutional buyers or markets with Jollibee Group of Corporation being its largest partner.