BAUKO, Mountain Province—Organizations of agriculture industry stakeholders must guarantee that their members are strictly adhering to the standards of good agricultural practices to make locally produced agricultural crops competitive in the global market, this town’s mayor said.
Mayor Abrahan Akilit underscored the performance of such practices in the context of the full implementation of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations free trade agreement by the end of this year.
The mayor said that for farmers to be able to master their compliance to GAP, there should be proper monitoring done by the concerned associations and the agriculture department.
The objective is to make their produce compliant with prevailing standards.
“Our farmers need to be closely monitored so that whatever lapses they commit will be immediately checked by those assigned by the organizations to look over their production of agricultural crops. We cannot immediately perfect GAP in just one sitting,” Akilit stressed.
He likened the GAP implementation to a sports event where the farmers need to have coaches to immediately correct their mistakes.
The mayor said it would take some time for the farmers to adjust to the stringent requirements of the GAP. “With the assistance of experts to monitor their planting activities, farmers will be able to adjust to the situation after one or two cropping seasons.”
Thus, their GAP-compliant produce could be sold in different markets within the Asean member-countries.