Veggie growers bloom in the digital market

Upland farmers in Liliw, Laguna, are gearing up to sell more of their produce outside the province through a joint project of the nonprofit Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (Searca) and socio-technoprise AppGeese Inc.

In a statement, the Los Baños-based Searca said the digital agriculture platform dubbed AgriEX, an application developed with APPGeese, is designed to unlock more markets for their fresh goods.

Searca and the Pasig City-based startup began working on the AgriEX platform in 2020, which features support structure and market linkage.

“[The] successful initiative has motivated the [town of Liliw] to actively seek collaborations, with plans to extend their agricultural produce to broader markets to sustain the growth of the farming community,” Searca director Glenn Gregorio said.

Through AgriEX, members of the Liliw Upland Farmers Marketing Cooperative (Lufamco) can sell vegetables they cultivated such as cabbage, string beans, chayote and radish.

Lufamco president Enrico Arvesu expressed their gratitude for the project that helped them plan and consolidate their harvest to reach a wider market.

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“This opens more opportunities for our group, and online marketing gives us the opportunity to reach more customers beyond our local area. We truly saw our potential,” Arvesu said.

Starting with 10 farmer-members, Lufamco took part in a series of activities, such as field visits, training in packaging and sorting and an introduction to digital marketing through the application. INQ