THE Department of Agriculture (DA) has turned over a budget of P20 million to the local government unit (LGU) of Dalaguete for the construction of a monolithic dome. It has also pushed for the establishment of a regional food terminal for Cebu City.
These programs, according to DA, is part of the agency’s food sustainability program.
DA 7 Director Salvador Diputado said the monolithic dome will serve as a storage facility to store and extend the shelf life of vegetables produced in Dalaguete.
Diputado said the storage facility will greatly benefit the Dalaguete farmers because it is already a complete structure with a cold storage. In case there are transportation delays, the farm produce will remain fresh, he said.
Dalaguete town is identified as one of the DA’s top grossers in vegetable production.
On the other hand, the proposed regional food terminal in Cebu City is expected to provide accessibility to producers and suppliers of all food commodities.
DA has a working budget of P14 million for this project.
“It is an open-air Bagsakan Center with a shed and a component of hauler trucks. It is an area where all the vegetables will be brought and the traders will be there to buy the produce,” he said.
Diputado said it will provide a seamless and organized location for food commodities to be open to the producers and suppliers.
Agriculture Secretary William Dar visited Cebu and Bohol last week to turn over P75.5 million worth of farm and fishery projects.
Dar handed over agriculture and fishery inputs, farm equipment and other assistance to 41 farmer cooperatives and associations and local government units (LGU).
The agriculture chief was also the guest of honor in the awarding of winners of the Sugbuanong Busog Luwas ug Himsog (Sugbusog) Program, a vegetable gardening project of the Province of Cebu that encourages households, communities and LGUs to engage themselves in home, community gardening and nurseries establishment, respectively.
“We have not yet achieved a 100 percent food sufficiency level, and here, we are advocating to plant more especially in the urban areas by utilizing vacant lots that are potential for food production,” Dar said of the Sugbusog program. (JOB)