 |
Batac Mayor Albert D. Chua leads the distribution of thousands of fertilizers as grant to the 7,409 registered farmers in the city of Batac from the city's RA 7171 share. (Photo courtesy of Batac City government)
By Dominic B. dela Cruz
Staff reporter
Batac City—"Pabilgen ni Bataqueno, Kasapulan Dagiti Mannalon Ikalikaguman Tayo”.
Those were the city’s cry as officials distributed thousands of organic, complete and urea fertilizers to at least 7,409 registered farmers here.
Batac City agriculturist Merilyn Gappi said that with the big volume of fertilizers they distributed, the city government decided to divide the distribution into three batches.
The first batch was on August 20 and 21, 2018 and the second batch was on August 24 and 25, 2018. The city government has not scheduled the third batch as of press time.
Ms. Gappi said each registered farmer received two bags of organic and one bag each of complete and urea fertilizers for a total of four bags per farmer.
She added that funding for these fertilizers come from the city’s share from tobacco excise tax.
In a random interview, the famers expressed their gratitude to the Batac City government for giving them priority on what they need like the fertilizers especially now at the start of cropping season.
Aside from fertilizers, the city government also distributed farm machineries to the different farmers and Batac farmers’ organizations.
Relative to this, Ms. Gappi urged all the farmers to apply for crop insurance at her office.
She said that her employees are ready to assist them because this will be great help in case their crops are damaged by calamities.