DA agencies help farmers earn more

Manila, Philippines - The new leaders of the Department of Agriculture (DA) are now working in concert to help farmers increase their incomes, make the country sufficient in food and consumers to have access to cheaper food.

This summarized the message of National Agri-Business Corp. (Nabcor) executive vice president Honesto “Bong” Baniqued to farmer-leaders in Central Luzon at the closing of a crash course on the use of the latest breakthroughs in organic farming using organic liquid fertilizer, to increase farmers’ earnings, held at the PhilMech in Science City, Munoz, Nueva Ecija.

Nabcor is the investment and venture capital arm of the DA.

Baniqued told about 100 leaders of the Kaisahan ng Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (KMA) mostly from the provinces of Nueva Ecija and Tarlac that the new breed of agriculture executives of the DA and its attached agencies have taken the cue from Secretary Proceso Alcala in bringing government assistance directly to organized farmers across the country.

The course which jumpstarted the popular use of what rice experts called a revolutionary system of rice farming that drastically brings down cost, increases harvests and translates to much higher incomes of rice farmers.

The system adopts a recently developed liquid organic fertilizer and the best features of conventional and traditional farming culture. It was validated by scientists from the Central Luzon State University in demonstration farms in Central Luzon, Cagayan Valley, Bicol and other rice-producing regions during the past two cropping seasons.

Baniqued and some members of the state corporation distributed samples of the liquid fertilizer signaling the start of a partnership between agencies under DA and the farmers’ cooperative.

Nabcor entered into a similar arrangement with a multipurpose coop involved in an integrated livestock business in the Calabarzon recently.

“We look forward to making sure that you can sell your wet palay (unhusked rice) harvests at a profitable price of P14 per kilo,” Baniqued told the farmers. The state firm also acts as the trading arm of the DA and was behind the direct sale of farmers’ harvest to barangay bagsakan markets in Metro Manila.

As part of its role in the partnership, Nabcor will work out a way of linking the farmers with direct buyers of organically cultured rice who may be willing to offer better prices than middlemen.

The new chief operating officer of Nabcor was plucked by Alcala from the agri-business community to be the action man of DA’s investment and trading arm. Baniqued was known as a farmer-leader in Benguet who was behind the direct linking of Baguio vegetable farmers with wholesale buyers in Manila and elsewhere.