Secretary William “Manong Willie” D. Dar graced Occidental Mindoro’s Agriculture and Fishery Summit at Sikatuna Beach Hotel, San Jose, Occidental Mindoro on January 21, 2020.
The Agri-chief was warmly welcomed by more than 300 farmers and fisherfolk from different municipalities and their mayors, other executive officials of the province with Vice Governor Peter Alfaro, Governor Eduardo Gadiano and Congresswoman Josephine Sato.
During a breakfast meeting, he was thanked by Mayor Romulo Festin of San Jose and Mayor Cesar Tria of Magsaysay for hastily sending assistance to the province through the Regional Field Office MIMAROPA after it was hit by Typhoon Ursula last December 25. Through communication with Cong. Sato, DA travelled to the affected areas with 4,540 bags certified seeds of palay worth P6.1M and 5, 561 cans of onion seeds worth P13.4M on December 29.
Congresswoman Sato expressed her gratitude to the DA when she talked during the program proper at the Agri-Fishery Summit. She said, “Kung lahat ng ahensya ng pamahalaan katulad ng DA na mabilis ang aksyon, wala sigurong iiyak na mamamayan”.
This time, Sec. Dar gave time to visit their province to hand over another assistance for the farmers as well as to the fishery sector. Indemnity checks from Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation were given to five (5) fishers, 10 corn, and 10 high-value crops farmers. While under the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, 30 units fiberglass bancas and P820,000 worth fishing equipment, gears, and seaweed seedlings were handed over to fishers affected by the recent typhoon.
Aside from the assistance that were given to them, the Agri-Chief also committed Php 300- million worth agri-fishery projects to the province such as P70-m support to agriculture, P54-million for fishery, P51-M for unconditional cash transfer while up to P100M is allocated for solar-powered irrigation system (SPIS). He also announced the four provinces---Paluan, Abra de Ilog, Sta. Cruz, and Magsaysay---that will benefit from DA’s anti-poverty project called SAAD or Special Area for Agricultural Development.
On-going programs under the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund such as the Survival and Recovery Aid (SURE Aid) Program that assists rice farmers whose incomes were affected by the drop of palay’s farm gate price was also mentioned by the Secretary. DA through Agricultural Credit Policy Council already released Php 32M to 2,000 farmers in the province. Along with that, he announced that National Food Authority will double their palay procurement and will be having more trucks to reach more towns. Administrator Atty. Judy Carol Dansal was also directed to repair damage warehouses this year.
He said that these can be added with more projects because of the Agri-Fishery Development Plan that they presented. The said plan was lauded by the Secretary during his speech because it incorporated the 8 new paradigms for Philippine Agriculture that is driven to increase productivity, competitiveness, profitability as well as sustainability and resiliency to climate change. He then emphasized the development of a provincial-led agri-fisheries extension system.
“Gusto ko kayo sa probinsiya ang leader, hindi ang DA, kami from DA ay catalyst lang. Kasama don sa provincial-led agri-fisheries system ile-leverage natin yung pondo ninyo with our funds and other partners at magjo-joint running and implementation tayo kung saan kayo ang leader,” he explained.
The provincial development plan was deemed to be a good start for their own agri-fishery system. “Marami tayong matutunan sa development plan ninyo, sana handa na tayo na partnership mode lagi ang ating tatahakin,” he ended.
