THE Department of Agriculture (DA) and its attached agency, the Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PhilMech), has provided a boost to the farmers in Zamboanga del Sur to increase their productivity.

This happened as the DA and PhilMech distributed Monday, February 8, some P99,030,000 worth of farm machinery under mechanization component of the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) to 32 Farmers Cooperatives and Associations (FCA) in Zamboanga del Sur.

The DA-Zamboanga Peninsula office said in a statement on its social media page that the program aims to raise rice farmers' productivity, profitability and global competitiveness through strengthened access and use of appropriate production and post production mechanization technologies.

The distribution of farm machinery was in collaboration with the Provincial Government of Zamboanga del Sur.

The economy of the province of Zamboanga del Sur is predominantly agriculture as about 3,724.82 square meters of the total land area of the province (or about 78.67 percent) is composed of agricultural land.

This includes non-forested areas, areas for annual crops, rice land and fishponds, perennial crops, grasslands, and pasturelands. (SunStar Zamboanga)