THE Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) recently turned over some P493,000 worth of support services projects to boost the economic lives of agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) in the province of Zamboanga del Norte.

DAR-Zamboanga del Norte Provincial Agrarian Reform Program Officer Arturo Soria said the support services projects include the P413,000 vegetable processing center and P80,000 community-managed potable water supply, sanitation and hygiene (CP-Wash) project, which were provided to Tamil Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Cooperative (Tamarbeco) located in Tamil village, Jose Dalman in that province.

Soria said the vegetable processing center would establish a processing center and processing plant that are in accordance with and accredited by Food and Drug Authority-License to Operate.

“With this, they could produce safe, quality and market-ready processed food products where they would be able to display and sell their products in leading supermarkets and stores nationwide,” Soria said.

He added that the success of this project would generate more investment, employment and income for the ARBs.

The CP-Wash project, on the other hand, would be the vegetable processing center’s source and storage of clean water.

Meanwhile, Tamarbeco Chairman Joe Ven Requina thanked the DAR for helping the farmers improve their economic lives. (SunStar Zamboanga)