Savares says Saipan farmers should work together

With issues lingering between the Farmer’s Cooperative and the Sabalu Farmers Market, Association of Northern Mariana Island’s Mayors, Vice Mayors, and Elected Municipal Council Members president Melissa B. Savares has this one piece of advise for them: Settle your differences and work together.

The conflict between farmers from the Farmers Cooperative and Sabalu Market has been brewing for quite awhile. Yet without the cooperation of farmers on Saipan, nothing can be resolved and providing necessary products through competition could engender deeper conflicts for the farmers.

Savares said the same thing also happens in Guam. She said Guam farmers recently took each other to court because they have two separate groups: the Farmers Co-op and the Chamorro Village farmers.

“They weren’t seeing eye to eye, so they had two presidents where they had two elections at the same day. Because we’re in the process of building a facility, I didn’t want to get involved with their squabble,” Savares said.

She said they had Guam’s Department of Agriculture work it out with the farmers.

“DoA and the leadership should work with the two leaderships of the farmers here on Saipan because they all have the same goal and that is to produce crops so our people can eat healthier and have local produce,” Savares said.

“So put your differences aside and look at what your goals are and don’t compete against each other because competing against each other is what any business would do, but you have to look at what are the needs of the people, what are the needs to eat healthier, so they can be healthier.”

As of now, the Sabalu Market and Farmers Co-op are in negotiations to restore the Tuesday Market at the Garapan Fishing Base. However, that would eventually defeat the purpose of the Garapan Public Market.

Savares said that having the Farmers Co-op would allow farmers to supply their produce in just one place instead of going out and doing the selling themselves.

“Farmers can go to the market and place their produce and then go back and maintain their farm, not needing to go out there and selling it on the streets. That way they will have more produce available. So collaborative efforts need to be addressed between farmers,” she said.

Savares said Saipan farmers should “work together to benefit the community and build a healthier community.”