By Leilanie G. Adriano
Staff Reporter
LAOAG CITY—Farmers in Ilocos Norte were all smiles as they received multi-million worth of aid courtesy of the Department of Agriculture.
For 75-year-old rice farmer Guillermo Cacal of the Zanjera Tubburan Irrigators Association, Inc. of Brgy. Tubburan in Bacarra, Ilocos Norte, he said they are thankful for the one unit of hand tractor worth PHP137,798 which his group received.
After awarding a total of PHP335 million worth of projects to Ilocos Norte, Mr. Dar said the agency has raised their focus on farmers to ensure food security while strengthening partnership and collaboration with local government units.
“Food security is a major responsibility of the provincial government. The DA is now working in tandem with provincial government for a shared responsibility. This is the time that we continue to empower by adding more funds in the province,” said Mr. Dar as he explained the multi-million worth of projects being distributed to farmers are not similar to conditional cash transfer.
To avail of these DA projects, he said farmers need to strengthen their associations or cooperatices because these are not given to any individual. “You need to organize yourselves for institutional development for farmers and fisherfolk,” he added.
During the onslaught of severe tropical storm “Ineng” [Bailu], the agriculture sector in the province suffered around PHP200 million in damages.
On the same event, the DA also awarded PHP10 million check to the Nueva Segovia Cooperative to facilitate the release of calamity emergency loan assistance to farmers.
Under the survival and recovery (SURE) program of the DA, Mr. Dar said an individual farmer may be able of Php25,000 financial assistance at zero-interest, and payable up to three years.
“This is how our government works under our President Duterte. We aim to bring a higher level of productivity in agriculture through machineries, quality seed distribution, skills development and credit facilities among others,” he said.
For those who wish to avail of the credit facilities of the government, Mr. Dar told farmers the agencies concerned were mandated to simplify the processing of documents and claim the amount requested in three hours.