Abaca and rice farmers must be applauding the governor-elect for meeting with Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel and reportedly securing his commitment for support for Catanduanes farmers and fisherfolk.
Among the assistance promised by DA were farm-to-market roads and irrigation projects, mechanized stripping machines, an abaca buying station for the provincial government, marketing linkages for abaca fiber, and tractors.
Not only would all these ensure higher prices of fiber but also enhance food security by reducing the island’s reliance on food imported from mainland Bicol, a report said.
But there was one item that should have been mentioned in the meeting with the DA chief.
For more than a decade now, since the administration of them Governor Araceli Bernardino-Wong trumpeted it early in her term after defeating Gov. Joseph C. Cua, fishermen and vegetable importers in the province have been praying for a cold storage facility.
It may also be recalled that an elective official, either a mayor or a congressman, vowed to have such a facility installed in the fishing village of Bato.
But nothing ever came out of the promises made during the stints of President Benigno Simeon Aquino Jr. and the now detained Rodrigo Duterte.
Then last January 2025, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. approved the use of P3 billion from the national budget for the DA to construct 99 cold storage facilities nationwide in a bid to extend the shelf life of fruits, vegetables and high-value crops, while ensuring price stability and food security.
For this purpose, a new office was created: the Agriculture and Fisheries Logistics Office under Assistant Secretary Daniel Alfonso Atayde, which prepared the plan to strengthen the agricultural supply chain by reducing post-harvest losses and improving the distribution of goods.
Being proposed for installation are three large facilities that can store between 2,800 to 3,500 pallet positions in Camarines Sur, Occidental Mindoro and Nueva Ecija, 96 small modular chiller-type facilities.
To its credit, the agriculture department under Sec. Laurel’s leadership has moved fast on this initiative, with the DA Regional Field Unit No. 5 conducting the public bidding for the supply, installation and commissioning of five (5) units of solar or wind-powered modular cold storage facility with battery generator worth P75 million for the Bicol region last Feb. 26.
Under the terms of reference, each modular facility will use a standard 40-footer container van about 12 meters long, 2.44 meters wide and 2.5 meter high, to be installed on meter-high concrete pedestals.
For a solar-powered unit, it would have at least 40 solar panels and a solar inverter with at least 15 kilowatt capacity capable of supplying power to the facility by itself.
For a wind-powered unit, the wind turbine generator must be able to generate an output of at least 3,000 kW but it is doubtful if it could work as well as solar power.
Inside the container van, the cold room must have at least 150mm thick polyurethane insulation in walls, ceiling and flooding, with temperature to be maintained between ranges of +1˚C to +10˚C.
Such a facility would have been perfect for the capital town of Virac, where several local traders bring in tons of vegetables from Benguet, Metro Manila and mainland Bicol for thousands of market goers.
Unfortunately, however, the five modular cold-storage facilities worth P15 million each are going to just two provinces: Ragay, Libmanan, Tigaon and Lagonoy, all in Camarines Sur, and the other one in San Lorenzo Ruiz, Camarines Norte.
It makes you wonder if the DA RFU-5, whose executive director traces his roots from the Happy Island, even considered Catanduanes among the prospective recipients of the facility which can accommodate between 7 to 15 tons of agricultural products.
While it would be laudable for the incoming administration to enhance local food production through appropriate interventions, it should not lose sight of the fact that the island remains dependent on imports from mainland Luzon for many types of produce, especially those that frequently fall victim to typhoons even if they can be grown here.