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Innovative Approach

The new direction of the vegetable industry in the world market has led to innovative approaches that link research results generated and developed by research institutions to end-users.  Most often, these are translated into information and technologies coupled with strategies to support implementation.  These address complementation, partnerships including linkage and networking, agribusiness and enterprise development; all of which are towards domestic and international global competitiveness.  In the case of vegetables, majority of these strategies lead to social and economic development including systems operation to ease production and marketing.  With the aid of information and communication and technology, these strategies are immediately shared to ensure that specific commodity issues and concerns faced by the industry are dealt with.  The vegetable industry adheres to the Farm-to-Fork Approach which is moving to its peak towards worldwide application.

The approach
The Farm-to-Fork or Farm-to-Plate (FTF) is an innovative approach that enables agricultural produce particularly vegetables to be freshly harvested, packaged and processed to reach the household.  Through the approach, three critical factors are considered - the people (producers and consumers), place (market) and price.  These factors are interlinked with each other that they rely on functional relationship.  This, means that people should be aware of product standards and appropriate uses of the produce as well as areas where they are coming from.  The produce must be found in places where it is accessible and provide an avenue for information exchange by farmers, processors, traders and even financial institutions.  Vegetables should have reasonable price that enables everyone to purchase and have a good feast.

Advantages
The FTF approach was first introduced by developed countries like US, Australia and Canada as an alternative way for easy and convenient cooking.  Housewives prepare vegetable salads already found in food trays in supermarkets which are well-packaged and ready to serve.  In addition, weight watchers and health fitness centers adopted and introduced the approach by having their own farms producing vegetables which are sold to their health buff clients.  This approach eventually helped a lot of individuals who are health conscious and with dietary concerns.

Users of the approach
In Southeast Asia and East Asian countries like Singapore, Korea, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, and Brunei, the approach was extensively used in their farms.  Progressive farms build their own processing and packaging structures.  Still at the farm, vegetables are classified and graded.  Vegetables that do not pass the quality standards for food packaging but are still of quality are brought to open market for wholesale and retail.  These markets address another client need specifically big hotels and restaurants. Presently, Vietnam, Cambodia and the Philippines are gaining momentum using combined and proven vegetable practices and strategies.

The case of Singapore could be considered as very successful.  The Singaporean government introduced a complementary strategy of contract farming to produce its vegetable needs in areas where production and processing systems could be monitored with strict quarantine laws.  The laws and regulations are strictly followed to address global competitiveness through product standards, food safety, and nutritional value.  This made Singapore successful that other neighboring countries ventured into the approach tapping natural farming or organic agriculture.

Future directions
Vegetables are already recognized for their nutritional importance in every meal around the world.  Because people are now very particular on quality of produce, every vegetable should be seen in the market anytime of the year with affordable price.  These directions in vegetables globally are addressed by institutions on research and development particularly on biotechnology and genetic engineering, marketing systems, information, communication and education and now development trends highlighting people's social needs.

In the Philippines, the Department of Agriculture's National Technology Commercialization Program (DA-NTCP) is into commercializing vegetable technologies that have impact on people's lives.  The DA-NTCP supports efforts of its partner agencies on the production of pesticide-free vegetables and natural farming to ensure that this will not have a tremendous effect especially on small farmers.  In addition, the program is also on guard regarding the influx of vegetables because of world trade.  The DA-NTCP safeguards the interest of the small farmers and addresses the needs for a global competitive market.

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Sources:
1.  Aquino, M.  2005.  Technology Commercialization Experiences: Taiwan and Hong Kong.  Official Travel Report in relation to the Study Visit and Exposure in People's Republic of China PRO-Taiwan.  06-18 November 2005.  AVRDC, Taiwan.
2.  Aquino, M.  2006.  Technology Commercialization Experiences: Thailand.  Official Travel Report in relation to the Study Visit in the Kingdom of Thailand.  17-29 January 2006.  Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Lampang, Thailand.
3.  Aquino, M.  2006.  Documentation of Asian Technology Transfer Experiences and Directions.  Official Travel Report in relation to First Asian Technology Transfer Conference held in Seoul, South Korea on 13-18 March 2006.