BAGUIO CITY – More than 3,500 farmers from the six provinces of the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) will benefit from the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) farm assistance aimed to ensure food sustainability.
Aida Pagtan, DA-CAR’s Regional Agriculture Fisheries Information Service (RAFIS) chief, told the Philippine News Agency on Thursday that among the equipment that will be distributed in various sites in the region on Friday are power sprayers, knapsack sprayers, mechanical transplanter, multi tiller, and forage chopper.
Certified seeds will also be given to the farmers as well as disinfectants, biofertilizers, and fertilizer, she said.
Abra farmers will also be receiving five heads of dairy cattle and three heads of sheep, and a “breeding station” for the cattle will also be distributed to the two farmers cooperatives.
About 543 farmers from Abra and 15 groups from Mountain Province will also get cash assistance under the Rice Farmers Financial Assistance (RFFA).
Around 18 groups of farmers in Kalinga are also expected to receive cash under the Presidential Assistance for Farmers and Fisherfolks (PAFF) from the Disaster Risk Reduction Management Fund of the DA-CAR.
Pagtan said mobile Kadiwa events will also be conducted during the simultaneous nationwide event in time for the 67th birthday of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.
As part of the continuing digitalization effort and to make distribution of aid easier to the government and the recipients, the DA-CAR will also be distributing intervention monitoring cards (IMC) to the farmers.
The IMC is like an automatic teller machine (ATM) card where the DA places or deposits the amount of aid for farmer-beneficiaries for easier processes.
The Cordillera region is among the pilot areas in the country for DA’s IMC digitalization program, eyed to also allow the beneficiaries to get the applicable and specific brand and quality of intervention they need.
“All these initiatives are aimed at boosting food production which is the primary goal of the department,” Pagtan said. (PNA)
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