MANKAYAN, Benguet – The municipal government and the agriculture department continues to extend the necessary support to the growth and development of the town’s agriculture sector to help in sustaining adequate supply of highland vegetables that will be distributed in the different markets inside and outside the province.
Earlier, the local government and the Cordillera office of the agriculture department distributed various farm inputs and agricultural supplies to farmers in the vegetable-producing communities of the municipality to help in boosting their productivity because agriculture industry stakeholders are also considered among the frontliners due to their important contribution in providing sustainable supply of food on the table for the Filipino families.
Mayor Frenzel A. Ayong underscored the important role of the agriculture industry stakeholders in ensuring the stable supply of various agricultural crops in the market to maintain the stable prices of the same, especially during these difficult times that a huge portion of the population had been heavily impacted by the prevailing Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
The beneficiaries of the farm inputs and agricultural supplies were identified by the agriculture department in close coordination with the municipal agriculture office and based on the Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture (RSBA).
He urged farmers to register with the government’s RSBA so that they can avail of any assistance that may be granted to them by the concerned government agencies because it is now a policy of the agriculture department that agriculture industry stakeholders must be registered with the said system for them to be avail of assistance.
According to him, the municipal government and concerned government agencies will work out the implementation of sustainable programs, projects and activities to help advance the state of the town’s agriculture sector as vegetable farming is one of the major sources of livelihood in communities, especially in the upland barangays, that is why one of the major activities of the local government is for the growth and welfare of the farmers.
As part of his support to the growth and development of the agriculture sector, Mayor Ayong had been previously advocating that farmer should be considered by the national government as frontliners, thus, they must be included as among the priority sectors to be vaccinated as they are always out in the open field ending to their agricultural crops to make sure that there will be available supply that will be shipped to the markets when the same are harvestable.
The six upland barangays of the municipality are the vegetable-producing areas while the 6 lower barangays are the mineral-rich communities where a number of large-scale mining companies are now operating and small-scale mining activities are situated.
The mayor expressed hope that more assistance from concerned government agencies and the local government will be provided to the agriculture industry stakeholders to help sustain the vibrance of the industry being one of the major sources of income of the people. By HENT
