SMC urge more farmers for its cassava assemblers program

 Food and beverage giant San Miguel Corporation (SMC) is looking for more farmers for its nationwide cassava assemblers program.

This was bared by Raymund Britanico, SMC Business Development Analyst, during the Agri Business Forum initiated by the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry-Aklan.

Britanico said that the cassava, which was once considered as the food of the poor, is now considered as the "food of the millennium."

"The cassava is now being globally considered as a survival food in the midst of global warming," he said.

Cassava can be used for manufacturing food for livestock, papers, sweetener, medicines, alcohol, and plywood, among others.

The SMC is looking for farmers and cooperatives who have at least 20 hectares of agriculture land devoted to cassava plantation. The SMC then will contract the farmers as a market with purchase agreement.

Britanico said that the SMC Cassava Assemblers program has contracted 188 assemblers in the provinces of Negros Oriental, Isabela and various provinces in Luzon and Mindanao areas.

It has yielded some 200,000 metric tons of cassava, collectively planted in 58,000 hectares. Farmers of the program earned PHP2.41 billion in 2014 benefiting thousands of farmers in 44 provinces.(