The Department of Agriculture (DA) has turned over two cold storage facilities in Palayan City, Nueva Ecija that will address the problem of post-harvest storage of onion farmers.

In a report by DA regional office 3 on Thursday, DA Undersecretary for High-Value Crops and Rural Credit Evelyn Laviña led the turnover of the 10,000 bags and 20,000 bags capacity of cold onion storage facilities to onion farmers of Valiant Primary Multi-Purpose Cooperative in Barangay Marcos Village in Palayan City on Tuesday.

Laviña said the projects are in line with the DA’s goals of a food-secure and a resilient Philippines with empowered and prosperous farmers and fisherfolk.

With the establishment of the new facilities, she hopes the best for the farmers in achieving “masaganang ani at mataas na kita (abundant harvest and high income)”.

The new facilities were funded by DA under the High-Value Crops Development Program amounting to some PHP17.49 million and PHP40 million for 10,000 bags and 20,000 bags capacity, respectively.

Due to the lack of storage facilities, farmers are often forced to market their produce at a low price.

With cold storage, farmers can store their produce longer, reduce post-harvest losses, and eventually obtain a good price.

The cold storage is expected to prolong the shelf life of onions up to seven months and will prevent crops from rotting early and restrain insects from infesting goods.

DA-3 regional technical director Eduardo Lapuz Jr., in a social post on Thursday, assured onion farmers that the DA will construct more cold storage facilities in the region to enable more farmers to store their produce in safe custody.

Last week, the DA turned over the PHP20-million cold onion storage facility to the members of the Sapang Multi-Purpose Cooperative in Moncada, Tarlac. (PNA)