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
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