BAGUIO CITY – The City Agriculture and Fisheries Council (CAFC) approved a resolution requesting the city’s legislative body to adopt an ordinance for the designation of a barangay kagawad who will be in charge of agriculture concerns in their areas of jurisdiction.
The enactment of the resolution was triggered by the concern raised by the officials and employees of the agriculture division under the City Veterinary Office that during their visits to the different barangays to discuss matters on agriculture, there were no designated barangay kagawads who could address or respond to the issues and concerns being brought to their attention.
The CAFC pointed out that barangay officials must designate point persons in their barangays who can immediately attend to matters relative to concerns on agriculture that need action on their part considering that there are still areas in the city which cater to agriculture or have agriculture stakeholders.
Earlier, the City Council recognized the importance of the contribution of agriculture to the city’s overall economy, thus, it included agriculture as part of its mandate and tasked the Committee on Market, trade and Commerce to cater to agriculture as part of its mandate.
Councilor Leandro B. Yangot, Jr., chairman of the City Council Committee on Market, Trade, Commerce and Agriculture, said the CAFC resolution is timely because of the need to also prioritize the issues and concerns relative to the state of agriculture in some barangays of the city considering that there are several barangays where agriculture activities are being done.
“We are elated that the agriculture stakeholders in the city are now empowered to advocate for their sector to be given attention by concerned government agencies and the various offices of the local government. We will immediately respond to the resolution by filing the appropriate legislative measure for barangays to designate their point persons on agriculture so that our agriculture personnel will not have a difficult time dealing with the barangay officials in the future,” Yangot stressed.
He said there are still some barangays in the city that serve as host to various agriculture-related activities which are the main source of income of residents in the said places, thus, it is important for the barangays and the local government to have designated point persons on agriculture concerns for them to be able to immediately respond to queries that are being brought to their attention, especially those issues and concerns on agriculture.
More importantly, Yangot explained that agricultural crops produced by the farmers in the different parts of the city are considered to be organically produced which is in line with the government’s thrust of shifting from the traditional chemical-based farming to organic farming that is being aggressively promoted by concerned government agencies for good agricultural practices.
The local legislator called on agriculture industry stakeholders in the city to continue providing inputs on what appropriate legislations should be passed for the benefit of organic farming practitioners in the different barangays of the city that will help in advancing the promotion of urban gardening among others among residents.
By Dexter A. See
