Buy fresh, buy local!

First of a four-part series

Last year, the Sabalu Farmers Association, Inc. was privileged to spearhead a leadership role that helped shape the direction for building the capacity of our local farmers to establish, form, operate, and manage a farmer cooperative entity, one that is beneficial to farmers, residents, off-island visitors and guests, and ultimately the local economy. The success of the farmers association would not be possible without our close working partnership with the Northern Marianas College CREES, the Office of Insular Affairs under the U.S. Department of the Interior, the CNMI Department of Commerce, and the Office of the CNMI Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan.

This year, as it was last year, we, the local farmers are thankful to our loyal resident and visitor customers who stay proud by joining thousand others embrace our Buy Fresh, Buy Local Campaign at the Sabalu (Saturday) Day Market, the Tuesday Night Market, and the weekly Evening Public Market every Thursday, and their patronage daily of our local retail outlets on Saipan.

This month, our collaborative leadership effort, which dated back to the February 2009 Agriculture Summit held at the Saipan World Resort, will soon bear fruits in the opening of the first Garapan Public Market located at Fishing Base. The Garapan Public Market offers a modern facility located along the Beach Road waterfront that will provide farmers and other local producers an important outlet to market their fresh produce, fresh catch, locally made value-added agricultural products and other local fresh products where buyers and other consumers will find local and fresh off-the-land produce and products and fresh off-the-water catch and marine products at a centrally located market.

The Garapan Public Market is an outgrowth of the Sabalu day market and the Tuesday night market combined and soon will serve the community daily as a waterfront island market place. The first Garapan public market itself symbolizes success, and bodes well for the success of local farmers and other local producers benefiting not just the local producers but the local consumers too.

As local farmers, we owe much of this success to the invaluable assistance rendered by the Department of Land and Natural Resources and the office of our local delegate to the U.S. Congress. With the success of local farmers this year brings a rippling success to our local community too, and in a special way the year 2014 marks an extraordinary chapter in my role as chairman of the Saipan Agriculture Fair, now in my fourth term. As the current chairman of the Saipan and Northern Islands Municipal Council, this year is special because it marks the beginning of my term as one of the founding members of a newly established CNMI Farmers Cooperative Association and current president of the Saipan Sabalu Farmers Association; my eighth year with the Farm Service Agency County Committee; and my 11th year as a farmer and member of the Commonwealth farming community.

To be continued (By RAMON BLAS CAMACHO)

Ramon Blas Camacho is president of the Saipan Sabalu Farmers Association and chairman of the 2014 Saipan Agriculture Fair. This column was submitted celebration of Saipan’s 31st Agriculture Fair.