Kidapawan City Government bares wide support to agriculture sector amid pandemic

NEWS | 2021/01/26 | LKRO

Kidapawan City Government bares wide support to agriculture sector amid pandemic

KIDAPAWAN CITY (JANUARY 18, 2021) – With the threat of the corona virus disease 2019 (Covid19) still high and continuing to bring adverse effects to the city’s agriculture sector, the City Government of Kidapawan bares its Support to Agriculture Program from the Annual Budget for 2021.

Kidapawan City Mayor Joseph A. Evangelista disclosed that around P76M will be utilized to implement the program which includes purchase of a farm heavy equipment (back hoe), three refrigerated vans, 2 hauling trucks, establishment of feed mill, 1 additional demonstration farm, and a recovery scheme to further help the farmers who incurred significant losses due to the pandemic.

Mayor Evangelista said that his administration will continue to provide aid to farmers particularly the vegetable and fruit growers based in different villages as well as livestock raisers and fisherfolks.

“We know the difficult situation of our farmers whose income substantially decreased because of the pandemic. We cannot let them totally suffer and carry the burden all along. The budget we allotted for agriculture will empower them in terms of improving crops and livestock production; not to mention our goal of attaining food sufficiency and supply independence” the Mayor also said.

Some P9.5M will be utilized for various crops production including vegetable, corn, pomelo and calamansi; P4.2M for tilapia and mushroom production; P7M for livestock and poultry production; P2.7M for feed mill and a big portion goes to the acquisition of equipment, trucks and vans.

Mayor Evangelista added that the Office of the City Agriculturist is mandated to encourage more fisherfolks to sustain fish production by helping them in burrowing more fishponds. The office will also see to it that farm products such as vegetables, fruits, grains, fish and meat will be freshly sold in the market with the use of the hauling trucks and refrigerated vans the City Government will acquire in no time.

Furthermore, farmers will have an easy time in selling their farm produce as the City Government will continue buying vegetables and fruits harvested by local farmers through the Farmer’s Market program and to sell the same at affordable prices.

Along with these interventions to provide them with an easy way to produce processed food for their tilapia fingerlings and other pellets for livestock as well as fertilizers to boost production. This will eventually save them time and money, according to the City Government.

For her part, City Agriculturist Marissa Aton highlighted the Support to Agriculture Program as a comprehensive action of the City Government to combat ill-effects of Covi19 pandemic to our farmers.

“In response to Covid19, we are doing these as measures to assist local farmers and to help maintain food security which is an essential function of our office”, Aton said. 

The City Government is committed in uplifting the local farmers and continues to formulate strategies to help them cope up with all the challenges confronting them brought about by the Covid19 pandemic.  (CIO_AJPME/jscj)