Negros Occidental Arbos to receive P5M in farm machineries

THE Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) in Negros Occidental-North is set to give P5 million worth of farm machineries to five agrarian reform beneficiary organizations (Arbos) in the province this month.

The DAR, through the Program Beneficiaries Development Division (PBDD), will grant a total of 45 units of farm equipment to Arbos in three localities.

These are Sta. Rosa Farmers Association, A&G Esteban Farmers Association, RICEBIS Negros Agrarian Reform Cooperative in Murcia; Barangay Quezon Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Association in San Carlos City; and Sicaba Farmers Association in Cadiz City.

The common service facilities to be distributed are 10 units of rice seeder, 10 units of collapsible dryer, five units of water pump irrigation system, five units of rice transplanter, five units of mechanical rice thresher, five units of floating tiller, and five units of hand tractor with implements.

Rizalina Yuguing, officer-in-charge chief Agrarian Reform Program Officer of DAR-PBDD, said though the fields at the northern part of Negros Occidental are dominated by sugarcane, a large number of the farmers still allot wide lands for the production of staple food -- rice.

"So to aid our farmers make use of their awarded Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (Carp) lands, increase the crop yield while cutting down the labor cost, and boost the Arbos rice production, we in the DAR, have gathered our resources to make this project possible," she added.

DAR-Negros Occidental I said the initiative is part of the major crop-based block farm productivity enhancement project under the Climate Resilient Farm Productivity Support (CRFPS) Project of the PBDD.

It said the CRFPS is geared toward the goal of building resiliency for agrarian reform communities with an emphasis on enhancing and sustaining the agricultural productivity of the said organizations as adaptation measures towards farming mechanization.

This project will also support the organizations to increase their farm production, yield better income and to reform their lives.

Program Beneficiaries Development is a support service delivery component of the agency that aims to capacitate ARBs and provide them access to salient support services for the productivity of their lands and improvement of their lives, it added.