Rotten tomatoes

It happens like clockwork every year. Farmers tearfully trash their harvests of tomatoes, cabbage and other vegetables because they can’t sell to recover the cost of planting. The price offered by traders at the farmgate is less than the cost of the crate. This makes taxpayers wonder what their government is doing to help those poor farmers. You don’t have to be an agri-business expert to know that this tragedy keeps on happening because of an acute lack of post-harvest infrastructure. Vegetables like tomatoes spoil in days. Without cold storage, farmers have no “buffer” to wait for better prices; they must sell immediately or lose everything. The DA claims to be building 99 cold storage facilities across the country, focusing on key production areas like Nueva Ecija and Benguet to extend the shelf life of vegetables. But not fast enough, it seems, or not happening at all beyond press releases. Post harvest loss is a serious problem. For rice and corn alone, the agriculture ...