BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya—The provincial government here recently gave funding assistance for farmers in Aritao town, the onion capital of the province.
The P2 million initial funding assistance for the onion farmers was sourced from the Philippine Rural Development Program (PRDP).
The recipient farmers are members of the Federation of Onion Farmers (FOF), which is composed of 11 farmer associations in Aritao town.
A mechanized farm hand tractor was also turned-over to the FOF as additional assistance.
Governor Carlos Padilla said the provincial government will also give P1 million as counterpart to boost the onion industry in the southern part of the province, being the One Town One Product of Aritao.
“These funds are just initial releases for our onion farmers. Actually, P20 million has been allotted to our onion farmers through the PRDP. The next release will be P5 million and so on until it will be fully released,” he said.
The PRDP is a six-year program (2013-2018) designed to establish the government platform for a modern, climate-smart, and market-oriented agri-fishery sector.
It focuses on expanding market access and improving competitiveness while introducing reforms in the internal operations of the Department of Agriculture.
The program contributes to inclusive growth by unleashing the economic potential of rural producers by investing in targeted, climate resilient agri-fishery infrastructure and by upgrading value to agri-based enterprises identified in ground-validated Provincial Commodity Investment Plans linked to national commodity road maps.
The program’s development objectives include the following: 1) at least 5% increase in annual real household incomes of farmer beneficiaries; 2) 7% increase in value of annual marketed output; and 3) 20% increase in number of farmers and fishers with improved access to DA services.
The program has the following components: Investments in Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Program Planning at the Local and National Levels; Intensified Building up of Infrastructure and Logistics for Development (I-BUILD); Investments in Rural Enterprises and Agriculture and Fisheries Productivity (I-REAP), and Implementation Support to PRDP (I-SUPPORT).