TABUK CITY, Kalinga – The local government is fastracking the completion of a P30 million farmers’ center building that will be a training facility for agriculture industry stakeholders to improve their knowledge and skills and to learn the latest technologies that could be used to improve productivity to sustain the food security of the Cordillera.
Mayor Darwin C. Estran֮ero stated the structure will be a training facility for local farmers to undergo the appropriate training to improve their production and open opportunities for them to increase their income while sustaining the food sufficiency of the region as a whole in the light of the emerging food crisis.
He added that Tabuk will remain an agriculture area amidst the ongoing rapid conversion of agricultural lands to commercial areas to ensure the stability of rice supply.
Tabuk and some parts of Kalinga are the rice granaries of the Cordillera over the past several decades because of the vast tracks of land producing different agricultural crops, mostly rice and corn.
Mayor Estran֮ero claimed the city government will closely coordinate with concerned government agencies and the private sector to provide the necessary trainings for farmers to upgrade their skills and knowledge on the latest farming techniques and technologies they could use to further improve their production thereby providing them with additional sources of income.
According to him, the city government will construct community irrigation projects in the areas not serviced by existing irrigation facilities for farmers to expand their production areas in uncultivated lands to partly replace the lands already converted to commercial and other uses.
Further, the city chief executive stipulated that farmers are also being convinced to make their idle lands productive to help in sustaining the production of agricultural crops that will contribute in stabilizing the food supply of the region for people to be able to cope up with the emerging food crisis that is expected to beset the country in the coming months.
Estran֮ero admitted that many city officials and employees from other local governments who conduct their benchmarking activities in the city are often surprised that Tabuk is an agriculture producing area contrary to their impression that it is a commercial and industrial community.
While it is expected that the city will urbanize in the coming years, he pointed out that it will still be best for Tabuk to maintain its status as an agriculture area because food production is important in sustaining the good quality of life of the people inside and outside the city.
Tabuk is the third largest city in the country with a land area of more than 700.25 square kilometers. The two largest cities in the country are Davao and Ilagan which is located in Mindanao and Luzon, respectively.
