TABUK CITY, Kalinga— The Department of Agriculture allotted P10 million for Kalinga’s rice mechanization program to improve production in the province.
Provincial Agriculturist Gerardo Jose said the allotment will come from the region’s Rice Mechanization and Post Harvest Development Fund aimed at boosting rice production in the Cordillera to help sustain the province’s identity as the rice granary of the region considering the vast track of agricultural lands being used for abundant rice production.
The Office of the Provincial Agriculturist has submitted its funding proposal to the DA regional office for fund sourcing under the AgrikulturangPinoy program for 2011, in order that funds could already be used by rice farmers in addressing the problems of rice production to sustain the government’s goal of being rice self-sufficient.
Before the expected release this quarter, OPAG is now validating the list of beneficiaries coming from farmer organized groups duly registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Department of Labor and Employment and Cooperative Development Authority, where deserving rice farmers will be the ones to benefit from the funds.
According to Jose, DA targets farmer groups as beneficiaries because of the 25 to 30 percent equity required from recipients of farm implements to be distributed under the mechanization program, which has been recently adopted by agriculture industry stakeholders to sustain sufficient rice production.
Since the program targets rice sufficiency, Jose said the four major rice producing towns of Tabuk, Rizal, Pinukpuk, and Tanudan in Kalinga are identified as recipient areas so that farmers will be able to realize improved rice production in the coming cropping season, compared to the previous cropping season following the release of the financial assistance from the national government agencies and concerned local governments.
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