P1-B projects awarded to Kalinga; DA pledges more

CITY OF TABUK, Kalinga -- Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol recently  awarded several agriculture projects here to reduce poverty in the province. 

He awarded 100,000 coffee seedlings of Arabica and Robusta to two people’s organizations and 10,000 seedlings to barangay Loccong in Tinglayan.

Some 50,000 seedlings each were released to members of the Tobog Agriculture Processing Association and Tanudan Savings and Lending Cooperative aside from the 10,000 bags of organic fertilizers

Piñol also inspected two farm- to- market road projects under the Philippine Rural Development Project    and held a forum with farmers group at Hotel this city. 

He said Kalinga received almost P1 billion in Official Development Assistance (ODA) mostly for farm to market road projects funded from PRDP and the 2nd  Cordillera Highland Agricultural Resources Management Project (CHARMP2).

He said Kalinga was one of the few takers of ODA projects considering stringent requirements of World Bank and other international financial institutions.

Piñol offered Kalinga farmers another assistance package through loan under the Production Loan Easy Access (PLEA) of Land Bank with P50 million available for disposal and making Kalinga the second beneficiary-province.

He said individuals can avail of a maximum loan amount of P50, 000.00 at six percent interest and no collateral.

Farmers need only to apply for an ID – like a credit card to allow them access to PLEA. The agricultural loan maturity depends on the crop harvest time. If coffee, 6 years to bear fruit, so 6 years maturity period. If rice, 2 years to pay, the Secretary said.

He told Gov. Jocel Baac to make Tinglayan a priority under PLEA and to extend loans to people of Loccong in the amount of P20, 000.00 per household as another concession to stop them from planting marijuana.

He also offered organic pig raising for the people of Balawag assuring to give 50 heads of native pigs as start-up to be distributed to the municipalities and on the long run adopts the pass-on scheme where an offspring is returned for distribution to other families.

The Secretary pushed for a nationwide backyard poultry production program on native chicken only after all barangays are immunized against Avian Flu virus. “Bilin ng Presidente, go back to basic agriculture and stop corruption,” he said.

He promised to give more funding assistance citing the P30 billion in development stock under his department. He said his policy direction is to spend and not to save.

 “Sa DA we require 90% spending in every quarter. Huwag natin pahirapan ang taong bayan. Simplify government transaction. Kung anong kailangan nila ibigay agad,” he stressed adding that the barometer of the success of these interventions is the reduction of poverty.

Almost all the infrastructure proposals of the different mayors presented to him during the “TAPATAN: Panagtitimpuyog Ti Gobyerno Ken Dagiti Umili” held at MHote the same day got the nod of the Secretary. “Approved, basta may market at area to be developed sa dulo ng proyekto, no road right-of-ways problem and you give your counterpart.  -- PIA Kalinga