10 June 2007
LEGAZPI CITY—GRADUALLY recovering from the series of disasters late last year, a total of 26,215 farmers in Albay received P2 million worth of farm tools from the provincial government in a joint project with the World Food Program, the United Nations’ food aid branch.
A total of 5,100 pieces of shovels, hoes, trowels, rakes, and sprayers donated by the WFP were being distributed to groups of farmers since Monday, said Mishael Argonza, head of the WFP-Legazpi office.
The cost of the damage to agriculture in Albay amounted to more than P533.4 million due to Supertyphoon “Reming.”
Albay Gov. Fernando Gonzalez said 230 clusters of farmers from 15 municipalities received sets of farming tools for collective use.
The provincial government also gave sacks of fertilizers and seedlings.
“We are encouraging our farmers to plant root crops too and should not be dependent on bananas and coconuts, which they have been used to planting. We are preparing them here for future climactic disturbances,” Gonzalez said.
He added that the provincial government, with the help of nongovernment donors, has extensively distributed seedlings and fertilizers to the farmers after Supertyphoon “Reming.”
Aside from giving away vegetable seeds like pechay, sitao, okra, upo, mungo, sitao, hybrid camote cuttings, gabi tubers, sweet corn and glutinous corn, the government also gave the farmers more trainings on production and modern farming methods.
“We don’t want to go very fast because we have to ensure the sustainability of our early measures. We hope to increase our benefiting clusters from 230 to 600 in the future,” Gonzalez said.
He added that the agricultural situation in the Albay has improved after the disasters.
Gonzalez said some of the farmers have started to harvest and there is now a stable food situation in Albay.
“High prices of vegetables as a result of the typhoons have gone down and we are now producing sufficient supply of products,” the governor said.
The WFP, which was behind the food-for-work projects for farmers and refugees here since December, already gave a total of 830 metric tons of rice, 9 metric tons of mongo beans, and 4.7 metric tons of edible oil, Argonza said.
He added that 704 metric tons more rice was expected to arrive for distribution to their beneficiaries until September. The WFP extends assistance to some 26,215 farmers and 15,425 evacuees. Ephraim Aguilar, Inquirer Southern Luzon
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