MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) has forged a memorandum of agreement with the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) to provide agricultural products as part of the food supply of the inmates in Balingasag, Misamis Oriental.
The deal also seeks to provide a steady source of income to DAR’s agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs).
“The marketing agreement…will establish the DAR-assisted ARB Organization, the Samay Multi-Purpose Cooperative (Samulco), as an exclusive supplier of vegetables to its direct buyer, the BJMP – Balingasag District Jail,” DAR said in a press release posted on its website Tuesday.
The BJMP-Balingasag jail will regularly purchase Samulco’s products based on the prevailing market price.
“This program guarantees the farmers with a ready market for their products while the jails are assured of freshly-harvested vegetables,” DAR Provincial Agrarian Reform Program Officer Maybelle Alcala said.
The tie-up is the fourth marketing agreement under the Enhanced Partnership Against Hunger and Poverty (EPAHP) project of the DAR, which aims to improve the food quality in city, district, and municipality jails based in Misamis Oriental.
EPAHP is dubbed as the banner program of the government’s Inter-Agency Task Force on Zero Hunger, which seeks to eradicate hunger by 2030.
In June last year, DAR and BJMP partnered up to source agricultural produce from agrarian reform beneficiaries to benefit detainees in the Pampanga, Nueva Ecija and Zambales provinces.