Gensan to pursue agri-fest plan

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (29 September 2014)  – Local government officials are pursuing plans of holding an agricultural festival here in the city, after looking at the potential of General Santos as the agri-industrial hub of Region 12.

Councilor Ramon Melliza, chair of the Committee on Agriculture, emphasized his intent to create an agricultural festival to showcase the bountiful harvest of Gensan farmers.

In his visit to Barangay Mabuhay during the culmination of SM Foundation’s Kabalikat sa Kabuhayan Program in partnership with the City Agriculturist’s Office, the councilor was awed to see the potentials of the farmers. He said if given the proper training, local farmers would be more successful.

“I am really astonished that even local farmers like you can grow as healthy and as ripe as these fruits and vegetables. Now, I do really want to propose to Mayor Ronnel C. Rivera and to the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) for Gensan to have an agri fest,” Councilor Melliza said in vernacular.

“Also, highlighting Gensan’s agricultural potential is a great leap to make us more than just the Tuna Capital of the Philippines,” he added.

Mayor Rivera has always indicated his aspiration to make Gensan as the agri-industrial hub of the SOCSKSARGEN region as a way to diversify the economy of the city.

If realized, Gensan would have three major festivals already, adding to the recent Tuna Festival and the upcoming Kalilangan in February.

SM’s Kabalikat sa Kabuhayan is a nationwide corporate social responsibility program of the SM Group of Companies, in which they train local farmers to innovate their farming methods and improve the quality and quantity of their yields.

In Gensan, there are already two barangays that became recipient of this program, last year in Katangawan, and now in Mabuhay.

This year, 116 local farmers were chosen by the City Agriculturist’s Office to be trained by HarBest, an SM agricultural company, for three months which started last July.

SM will be their market also, as the mall committed that it will purchase their yields and sell them in their different branches. (Gensan CPIO/ Ian John M. Lagare)