MANILA, Philippines – Buy a kilo of cabbages from the community pantry and help Benguet farmers weathering the adverse effects of El Niño to agriculture.

The community pantry is an initiative that started in Maginhawa Street, Quezon City, three years ago which inspired people to give and take food according to their capabilities and needs. Recently, the pantry had been connecting farmers to consumers, communities for their produce.

“With the ongoing El Niño, the pantry wants to buy cabbages at a higher price than the price initially set by farmers,” Ana Patricia Non, founder of community pantry, told Rappler in Filipino.

Non explained that Benguet farmers were selling cabbages at P12 to P15 per kilo. After checking how much cabbages are sold in grocery stores, Non said they decided to buy the cabbages at P20 per kilo.

Per kilo sold, the community pantry is going to give another kilo of cabbages for free to “communities, the homeless, jeepney drivers, Palestine refugees, Muslim migrant communities, city jails,” Non said.

This sets the buying price at P50 per kilo of cabbages. The additional P10 would cover operational costs. The pantry is accepting orders from April 11 to 23.

Benguet is the top producer of cabbages in the Philippines. It contributed 40% in cabbage production in 2020. Around 34% of the country’s cabbage farming area is in the province.

According to a recent update from the Cordillera regional office of the Department of Agriculture (DA-CAR), wholesale prices of cabbage rareball range from P14 to P16 per kilo, while wholesale prices of cabbage wonderball range from P16 to P19. Big Chinese cabbages, meanwhile, are priced at P10 to P14 per kilo.

DA-CAR reported P444.94 million of agricultural damage due to El Niño as of the end of March. Non said they have been in talks with DA-CAR regarding assisting farmers and connecting them to consumers.

According to the latest report from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, agricultural damage hit P1.2 billion, affecting 29,409 farmers and fisherfolk and 26,731.4 hectares of crops.

El Niño has historically impacted livelihood and health by causing extreme droughts and severe flooding in parts of the world. Dry spells and droughts could mean crop failures and issues in food production. – Rappler.com