A farm-to-market road project of the Department of Agriculture (DA-12) in a remote village here has ease farmers’ lives and make transport of agricultural crops easier, agriculture officials said.
From PHP100 per sack of rice or corn shipped through skylab, a local moniker for motorcycle, the transportation cost of farmers of Sitio Matias, Barangay Camutan, Antipas, North Cotabato has been reduced on to PHP60, according to Noemi Reyes, Antipas Municipal Planning and Development Coordinator.
“After the PHP8.3-million Farm-to-Market Road Project (FMR) was implemented by the DA-12 through its Bottom-Up Budgeting Program in partnership with the local government, it contributed a lot to increase the income of farmers in Barangay Camutan,” she said.
Amalia Jayag Datukan, DA-12 regional executive director, said the project has been serving 100 farm families in Sitio Matias cultivating more than 700 hectares of production area of commodities like rice, corn, coconut, rubber, and banana.
Rice farmer Jovic Teodoro attested to that saying before the project was completed, they could hardly pass through the muddy road and they paid huge amount of money just to deliver their products to the market.
Today, Teodoro has his own motorcycle because he saved a lot from his income after the road was rehabilitated and concreted.
Hernando Villarosa Jr, chairperson of Barangay Camutan, also admitted that aside from Sitio Matias farmers, residents of mountains of Arakan and Magpet towns benefit from the project since the road was the gateway of products from these areas.
“I am very thankful to the Department of Agriculture 12 for this project. We never thought that the road will be rehabilitated and concreted,” Villarosa said.
On top of FMR project from BUB, Barangay Camutan also received from DA’s Agri Pinoy Rice Program three multi-purpose drying pavement and two warehouses.
”Really, the lives of our farmers have tremendously improved, economically and socially,” he added. (PNA)
Subscribe
Login
0 Comments
Oldest