Thursday, July 05, 2007 Neda releases P700-T to boost sugarcane farmers' productivity By Joy Romares-Sevilla
THE regional office of the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) has released a total of P700,000 to the United Sugarcane Planters of Davao - Multi-Purpose Cooperative (USPD-MPC) and to the Southern Philippines Agri-Business, Marine and Aquatic School of Technology (Spamast) to further boost productivity of sugarcane farmers in Davao del Sur.
The fund, released Tuesday during ceremony at the Spamast Campus in Digos City, will be utilized for the production of mud-press based organic fertilizer.
Dr. Alexander Campaner of Spamast and Imelda S. Magabilen of USPD-MPC, received the check from Neda regional director Nicasio Angelo Agustin.
Spamast has developed a technology that will produce organic fertilizer out of the waste from sugarcane mills.
The technology reduces the waste generated from sugarcane mills while producing organic fertilizer that will be plowed back to sugarcane farms.
The process not only improves the productivity of sugarcane farmers, but it also supports cost reduction of farm inputs by utilizing organic fertilizer.
"One of the encouraging features of this project is the collaborative effort that went with it among the government, the academe and the NGO," Agustin said.
It was learned that the DOST-Southern Mindanao helped in the development of the technology, while the members of the USPD-MPC will eventually become the beneficiaries of the project.
