CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- Six provinces, one municipality and 87 agricultural extension workers (AEWs) of Central Luzon were awarded during the Agri-Pinoy Rice Achievers Awards held at Resorts World Manila recently.
The Agri-Pinoy Rice Achievers’ Awards is part of Department of Agriculture (DA)’s interventions and incentive system to encourage local government units, Irrigators Associations (IAs), Small Water Impounding System Associations (SWISAs), Agricultural Extension Workers (AEWs) and Local Farmer Technician (LFTs) to contribute their share in increasing farmers’ harvest and incomes to attain national rice sufficiency.
The awardees were the provinces of Nueva Ecija, Bataan, Bulacan, Tarlac, Aurora and Pampanga; the municipality of Bustos, Bulacan; and AEW awardees included three from Aurora; five from Bataan; 12 from Bulacan; 31 from Nueva Ecija; 11 from Pampanga; 19 from Tarlac and six from Zambales.
Central Luzon contains the largest plain in the country that produces most of the country's rice supply, earning itself as the "Rice Granary of the Philippines”.
“DA Central Luzon was able to attain record-breaking productions of different commodities it handles in 2014. Specifically for rice, a total of 3,765,150 metric tons (mt) was produced with an average of 5.25 mt/ha. and 154 percent sufficiency level. Out of the 528,406 mt increment of the country’s produced, Central Luzon’s share is 67.31 percent or 355,682 mt and 19.85 percent over all contribution to the national production,” DA Central Luzon Regional Executive Director Andrew B. Villacorta said.
In his message, Director Larry P. Nacionales said the Agri-Pinoy Rice Achievers Awards encourages AEWs, LFTs, and LGUs to help in the delivery of agricultural services, technology transfer and adoption to the rice farmers.
Each AEW and LFT received P20,000 cash, the outstanding municipality received P1-million while each of the provinces’ governors will receive a trophy and check worth P4-million for rice-related projects, which will further boost the rice industry in their locality.