Cebu soon to become CV’s fruit basket

Rep. Simeon L. Kintanar of the second district of Cebu and Bernie Dizon (otherwise known as Ka Bernie, the country’s top pomologist) have launched an effort to make Cebu Central Visayas’ fruit basket.

Financial support for the project,Kintanar said, would be sourced from the congressional allocation, the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), and from the Department of Agriculture.

He said the project will get P5 million from PDAF and another P5 million from the Department of Agriculture (DA) in 2005; another P10 million from PDAF another P10 million from DA in 2006.

Ka Bernie will serve as project consultant to hundreds of local farm workers. The technical personnel of DA Region 7 in the second district and DENR Region 7 in the second district shall provide logistical and technical and another necessary assistance to the project.

Kintanar is optimistic of the success of the project in about four to five years." We are expecting to harvest the fruits of our labor by the year 2009 or 2010. We will be eating and selling quality fruits such as citrus, pomelos, mangoes, grapes, lychees, longgan, and other high value fruits, he said.