Local government unit in Cantilan continues to provide seeds and fertilizer subsidies for farmers in Cantilan to improve farmer’s productivity and income.
“The local government unit (LGU) has appropriated PHP4.3 million for seeds subsidy and PHP3.5 million for fertilizer subsidy this year,”Cantilan Agriculture Office chief Cesar Blanco said.
“A farmer buys two sacks of seeds; he only pays for one sack. The LGU will pay for the other sack. It’s the same when a farm buys fertilizer,” Blanco told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) on Thursday.
As cited in the report from the Philippine News Agency (PNA), the program in developing the agriculture sector, specifically, in improving farmer’s productivity and income, are one of the priorities of the Mayor Maria Carla Pichay.
Farmers who belong to associations and cooperatives are the priority for the subsidy program that has provided the much-needed support, especially during planting season, Blanco said.
Cantilan is known for producing rice,with 1,280 hectares of rice fields classified as irrigated and about 900 hectares as rain-fed. The town also produces coconut and abaca.
Moreover, Mayor Pichay launched the first Funders’ Forum in Cantilan which was attended by more than a thousand farmers from various barangays last Tuesday.
The objective of the forum is to strengthen the connection between farmers’ organizations and cooperatives to the government’s national line agencies.
“Cantilan’s LGU also turned over to farmers’ groups eight units of various types of farm machinery this year, including water pumps,” Blanco stated.
The Rice Processing Center in Cantilan that was built in 2015 continues to serve the needs of the farmers in the area, he added.
Farmers expressed their gratitude to their LGU for helping them through providing seeds and fertilizers subsidies.
“The subsidies come at the same time as the increase in the prices of seeds and fertilizers in the market,” Farmer leader Alberto Ortega, chairman of the Municipal Agricultural and Fisheries Council (MAFC) in Cantilan, told PNA on the sidelines of the Funders’ Forum.
Source:
Surigao Sur town provides seeds, fertilizer subsidies to farmers