A TOP government official declared the Filipino farmers as the “new heroes” as the country is facing a crisis due to the coronavirus disease (Covid-19).
John Castriciones, secretary of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), said it is high time that farmers get all the help that they need since they take the cudgel for the nation’s requirements at this time of the pandemic by “providing food on our table.”
As he admired the farming sector for playing a major role, he said the farmers are the ones who are “keeping the country’s economy rolling.”
Amidst the health crisis, the official said Filipinos can beat the pandemic by working together for the highly successful revolutionized farming system through the “Buhay sa Gulay” project.
He hoped that the launching of the project will “arouse their interest and enthusiasm into farming.”
Castriciones aid the project could help increase food productivity that “will redound for the benefit of our people.”
“This is really a big help for us. We were taught about new farming methods to increase our harvests much unlike before when we just cleared a portion of the area and plant. We were taught how to prepare garden beds, unlike before we totally ignore such practices,” said Severino T. Sablay, 72, leader of one of the five teams working on the “New Greenland Farm” in Bagong Silangan, Quezon City.
“We are seeing a great future here. We were taught the proper way of farming and spraying our plants with pesticides. Before, we just plant and then let them grow by themselves,” added Camilo Mendoza, 79.
Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, who is the concurrent chairman of the Task Force Zero Hunger, said hunger is worse than Covid-19.
“At least Covid-19 can be cured by the vaccine. There is no vaccine for hunger,” Nograles said.
According to the agency, everything is possible for as long as “people have visions.”
“Before, ours was limited to backyard gardening. I’m glad that we have started urban farming and we are going to expand from seven hectares to 10 hectares. I just really want to thank Secretary John Castriciones for your support,” said Quezon City Joy Mayor Belmonte, who was reportedly awestruck by the success of the project.
As this developed, the agency said it is intensifying the delivery of support services to all farmers “to offset the ill-effects of the pandemic.”
Emily Padilla, the agency’s undersecretary for support services office, said there is a sense of urgency to provide the farming sector the much-needed assistance since it is the most vulnerable among all the sectors of the society.
“They were already poor, if not the poorest among the poor, even before the pandemic had afflicted the country,” said Padilla during the distribution of Certificates of Land Ownership Award and the awarding of the P9.3-million package of support services in Santa Rosa, Nueva Ecija.
According to the agency, the support services package included P1.81 million financial assistance to two farmers’ organizations, two light tractors worth P1.99 million and 75 hauling motorbikes worth P5.51 million.
Padilla claimed in a statement that there are 13 million farmers all over the country who comprise 70 percent of the poorest of the poor in the rural areas.
“Before the pandemic, poverty incidence in the farming sector was pegged at 34.4 percent, the highest in our society,” Padilla said.
Citing a June 2020 report, the agency said the farmers registered 31.6 percent poverty incidence, followed by the fisherfolks, 26.2 percent, and the people residing in rural areas, 24.5 percent.
“After the pandemic or because of the pandemic, I wonder how much the poverty incidence in the farming sector will be?” Padilla asked.
To help keep it rolling, Padilla cited four types of support services that the agency is extending to all farmers regardless of whether they are identified as agrarian reform beneficiaries or not.
These include the social infrastructure building, the livelihood enterprise development, the financial/credit assistance, and the climate-resilient farm productivity support project.
According to Padilla, the social infrastructure building is the most important for it involves convincing all farmers to form or join various organizations for them to quickly avail of the three other types of services the government is coursing through these groups.
The livelihood enterprise development, she said, involves off-farm livelihood assistance to augment household income, while financial/credit assistance is providing farmers financial capital for farm inputs, and the climate-resilient farm productivity support project refers to pieces of farm machinery delivered to them to make farming less burdensome.
Meanwhile, the agency said they continue the distribution of land titles to farmer-beneficiaries.
In Camarines Norte alone, the agency led in the distribution of 26 land titles to landless farmers from the province’s municipalities.
DAR officers personally delivered the land titled right at the farm or at the doorsteps of the recipients.
On infrastructure support, the agency said at least three new bridges, worth P22.5 million, are set to be constructed by the agency and the Public Works and Highways for farmers residing in agrarian reform communities in Ilocos Sur.
The bridges would connect the agrarian reform communities and neighboring towns and barangays to market centers, the agency said.
“These bridges will link our farmers to commercial areas where they can sell their produce. The goal is to allow our farmers to become more active participants in the local economy, and ultimately, to expand the reach and development of the country’s agriculture industry,” said Castriciones.
The official also lauded the Congress Committee on Agrarian Reform for approving the New and Improved Agrarian Reform Program Bill, saying “it would greatly benefit the agricultural sector, particularly the agrarian reform beneficiaries under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.”
House Bill (HB) 5507, sponsored by Bataan Representative Geraldine Roman, is an act instituting the second phase of the agrarian reform program providing state subsidy in the acquisition and distribution of agricultural land to agrarian reform beneficiaries and creating the mechanisms for its implementation and other purposes.
According to Castriciones, the bill “would resolve all the problems concerning the implementation of agrarian reform and provide improvement in the provision of support services to the farmers.”
“HB No. 5507 would improve the current agrarian reform law so that we can implement it smoothly and quickly. Through this, we can avoid the previous mistakes which hampered the provision of services to the agrarian reform beneficiaries,” he added.
“It is evident that they see the significance of agrarian reform in the improvement of the country’s agricultural sector. I believe that they also see that agrarian reform beneficiaries will play a vital role in securing our food supply, thus an improvement in the provision of support services for the farmers was proposed.” (SunStar Philippines)