THE City Agriculture Office of Mabalacat City, headed by Lou Balatibat, is one department of the local government unit which monitors closely matters affecting agriculture and farmers in the city.

It has been a recipient of several national awards and has been recognized for its excellent performance.

It’s a case of teamwork and camaraderie, says Lou, and the results we have achieved so far are encouraging. We intend to do more and achieve more for the sake of farmers in the city.

It has rendered a Damage Report on Drought which confronted the city: on cassava, 20 farmers from different barangays were affected involving 27 hectares, estimated at P469,750; on sweet potato, 5.5 hectares were affected involving five farmers for an estimated loss of P96,250; on green corn, 7 hectares were affected, involving 3 farmers for an estimated loss of P31,325; on banana, only one farmer was affected, involving one hectare, for an estimated loss of P130,000; on eggplant, 0.5 hectare was affected involving one farmer for an estimated loss of P63,423 and on ampalaya, one farmer was affected involving 0.2 hectare for an estimated loss of P27,166.

Lou maintains a dialogue with the affected farmers and finds ways to make up for the losses in these crops.

As a matter of fact, agricultural services are available to the farmers on crops production, so there is a distribution of certified rice seeds and hybrid rice seeds, hybrid corn seeds and green corn seeds and fertilizers which are classified into organic, urea and complete.

There are also agricultural services on livestock production: vaccination of livestock and poultry animals, treatment of animals, deworming, vitamin supplementation, castration and pregnancy diagnosis, estrus synchronization and artificial insemination on carabao and cattle.

The other agricultural services are on high value crops development program and on farm machineries and equipment.

To hone the skills of the staff of the City Agriculture Office, seminars and trainings (farmers field school) are given: season long training on upland corn production, candle making, meat processing and corn husks craft making.