Community comes together to celebrate Agricultural Fair

Plants and farm animals in the island were once again put to the spotlight as the community gathered to celebrate the 32nd Saipan and Northern Islands Agricultural Fair at the Civic Center in Susupe last Saturday.

The theme for this year’s event is “Farmers and ranchers bring life to our islands” in recognition of their hard work to bring the fruits of their labor for the community.

Various produce like mountain apples, avocados, cassavas, gourds, and leafy vegetables were on display inside the 4H Building, showing the quality of farming in the island. A section for youth division also displayed the produce of the younger farmers.

In the open, the best of swine, cattle, goats and poultry were displayed.

According to Saipan and Northern Islands Fair Association president Michael Ogo, around 90 categories were competed for in the plant division and about 20 categories for the animal division.

Judging started as early as 6am and ribbons were placed on winning entries but according to Ogo, awarding will be on July 11.

Meanwhile, two competitions like the CREES Agro-fashion show and Junior Chef Cooking Competition did not push through because of the lack of participants.

Aside from the exhibits, a mini petting zoo with a kid (baby goat), piglets, and bunnies was also set up for children to play and interact with. Tents for food vendors and farmers to sell their produce as well as plants of different kinds were also present.

“We have more activities and we have more people,” Ogo said.

Various agencies also had booths like the Department of Public Safety and the U.S Department of Agriculture from Guam to promote various programs to the community.

“That’s the whole purpose of having an Ag Fair. To have service agencies, have the community, and have the farmers and ranchers come into one venue, meet and get to know each other and the whole goal is basically to improve agriculture in the CNMI,” Ogo said.

Sponsors for this year’s event are Ace Hardware, Bank of Guam, Bureau of Environmental and Coastal Quality, Bridge Capital, LLC, DFS T-Galeria, Department of Fish and Wildlife, Department of Public Safety, Hula Girl, Hyatt Regency Hotel, Luta Agricultural Fair Association, NMC-CREES, Saipan Sabalu Farmers Market, Inc., Saipan Plant Center, and Saipan Shipping.