DA finances post-harvest facility in Aurora

The Department of Agriculture (DA) is helping build a P22-million central post-harvest facility in Aurora to boost palay production.

Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap recently turned over a check for P15.17 million to Aurora Gov. Bellaflor Angara Castillo for the Binhian sa Lalawigan Project.

The Aurora provincial government will shell out the remaining P7 million needed as counterpart funding for the project.

“The facility will go a long way in boosting palay production in the province, which is way below the national average,” Yap said.

The P15.17-million funding assistance from the DA will be used to build the central post-harvest facility to be located in Barangay Reserva in Baler.

The facility will include two flatbed dryers, a multi-purpose drying pavement and a modern warehouse with the usual amenities of weighing scales, moisture meters and trucks for hauling.

Yap said the counterpart money from the province will be spent for the farm inputs of the seed producers on a loan program designed specifically for seed production.

According to DA OIC-regional executive director for Central Luzon Redentor Gatus, Aurora is way below the average in terms of palay production with yields reaching only 3.4 metric tons per hectare as against the national average of 3.80mt.

With a production area of more that 11,000 hectares that will be planted with quality certified seeds produced locally, the DA expects to increase the average yield under this five-year project to 4.5mt per hectare, Gatus said.

Besides providing funds for a central post-harvest facility in Aurora, Yap also launched a mariculture farm project in the municipality of Casiguran that will involve the development of some 300 hectares in offshore fish cages for the culture of high-value marine products, such as bangus, grouper and siganid.

He noted that once fully operational, the mariculture park will help increase the contribution of Aurora to local marine production from less than one per cent at present to 10 percent.

As immediate assistance to the project, Yap disclosed that President Arroyo had already approved the release of P200 million to upgrade the Baler-Casiguran provincial road.