Aritao, Nueva Vizcaya—The provincial government here has released P7.1 million in assistance to farmers to boost their production of garlic, onion, and ginger here.
Juditte Asuncion, Provincial Cooperative and Enterprise Development Officer, said the check was recently given to the Federation of Aritao Growers of Onion, Garlic and Ginger Associations Inc.
“The monetary assistance represents the seed working capital portion of the P7.1-million support package for the Federation, which also includes production and marketing equipment,” she said.
Asuncion added that the recipient farmers’ organization that grows onion, which is one among the recognized flagship commodities of the province, is a beneficiary under the Investment in Rural Enterprise, and Agriculture-Fisheries Productivity component of the World Bank-funded Philippine Rural Development Program of the Department of Agriculture.
The PRDP projects in the province were contained in a Memorandum of Agreement forged between the provincial government and the DA during the administration of former Gov. Ruth Raña Padilla.
The PRDP, in partnership with local governments and the private sector, aims to increase the productivity and income of farmers and fisherfolk, and make them more competitive by installing production and marketing support facilities, establishing viable enterprises, and upscaling products at the appropriate commodity value chain.
Funding for PRDP projects for infrastructure development carries 80 percent of World Bank’s counterpart and requires, 10 percent each from the DA and recipient-LGUs, while for enterprise development-related projects, the counterparting scheme is at a 60-20-20 ratio.
Warlito Dacumos, AGOGGAI president, said they now have 11 primary association members composed of 927 farmers from the nine barangays of Aritao.
“We are thankful for this support package, and shall endeavor to achieve the performance targets set by the PRDP,” he said.
Dacumos added they hope to raise a counterpart fund to build a storage facility, which will cut production losses due to spoilage and help stabilize commodity supply and price levels.
The awarding of the funding assistance was led by Governor Carlos Padilla with Board Members Patricio F. Dumlao, Jr. and Eunice Galima-Gambol and Provincial Administrator Maybelle Dumlao Sevillena.