CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- Two Central Luzon provinces made it to this year’s 2017 Rice Achievers Awards (RAA).
Among the awardees from Central Luzon were the Provinces of Bulacan, and Nueva Ecija under provincial category, and Municipality of Paniqui, Tarlac under the municipalities/cities category.
This, as the Department of Agriculture (DA) recognized the outstanding provinces, municipalities/cities, irrigators’ association (IAs), small water irrigation system associations (SWISA), agricultural extension workers, and local farmer technicians (LFTs) for their significant contributions in the rice industry during the 2017 Rice Achievers Awards (RAA) Awarding Ceremony held at the Philippine International Convention Center, Pasay City on May 31.
RAA is one of the interventions of DA to encourage farmer-partners and stakeholders to deliver excellence in their performance through higher yield and improved quality of their produce.
The provincial winners will receive an amount of P4,000,000 each while municipal winner will receive P1,000,000 to be utilized as per submitted approved projects proposals related to rice production.
Central Luzon Outstanding Small Water Irrigation System Associations (Swisa) category awardees were Bacole Tagaleb Swisa from Bangantalinga, Iba, Zambales, and Buted Water Impounding Irrigators Association, Inc. from Buted, Talugtug, Nueva Ecija received P100,000 each.
“Ngayong araw ay we will recognize the heroes of the country,” said Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol.
In her message, Senator Cynthia Villar said that it is proper to recognize the achievement of Philippines’ rice production and stated the record-breaking 2017 rice production of 19.28 million compared to 17.63 million metric tons 2016 production
Villar also commended DA in addressing the needs of the country’s rice sector and emphasized that outstanding palay production has significant impact in the Philippine agriculture.
Meanwhile, provinces qualified for technical paper presentation were Pampanga, and Tarlac received P250,000 each, and province qualified for field validation was Bataan received P500,000.
The awarding ceremony is part of the culmination activity of the Farmers and Fisherfolks Month celebration.