General Santos coconut facility transferred to agrarian reform beneficiaries

A FACILITY used to store and consolidate the produce of multiple coconut farms in the General Santos City area has been transferred to agrarian reform beneficiaries, the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) said.

The recipients were the Tinagacan Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Cooperative in Barangay Tinagacan, General Santos City.

The facility was procured under DAR’s Linking Smallholder Farmers to Markets and Microfinance (LinkSFarMM) project.

“The project aims to store the whole coconuts without compromising its quality prior to its delivery. It will also be a good area for post-harvest activity such as de-husking of the coconuts while avoiding the direct sunlight which can affect the quality of the product,” Provincial Agrarian Reform Officer Cenon S. Original said.

Member agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) and smallholder farmers can store whole coconuts in the consolidation area and sell their products under an all-in scheme.

“The consolidation area for the cooperative’s coconut business is worth P180,686, which would benefit 40 member-ARBs within the cooperative, and a total of 668 ARBs within the Tinagacan covering the barangays of Tinagacan, Batomelong, and Upper Labay, in the city of General Santos,” Mr. Original said.

The DAR said access to the facility will increase productivity and create more market opportunities for coconut farmers.

“We will strive to improve the services of the cooperative so that we can still get other projects from the government so that members and non-members, and even the next generations could benefit from it,” the DAR said in a statement.

LinkSFarMM helps develop agri-enterprises by linking ARBs and farmers to the supply chain. — Luisa Maria Jacinta C. Jocson