More than 200 coconut and corn farmers in Kidapawan City and Kabacan receive cash and food aid from DA12 and PCA

NEWS | 2021/04/15 | LKRO

More than 200 coconut and corn farmers in Kidapawan City and Kabacan receive cash and food aid from DA12 and PCA

Kidapawan City, April 13, 2021 – Over 200 coconut and corn farmers based in different barangays in Kidapawan City and the Municipality of Kabacan benefited from the cash and food aid from the Department of Agriculture (DA) 12 and the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) as part of the agencies’ assistance to agriculture sector severely affected by Covid-19 pandemic.

DA 12 Regional Corn Coordinator Abas Abdullah, Coconut Development Officer Kathleen Lana, and City Agriculturist Marissa T. Aton led the distribution held at the Mega Tent of the City Hall this morning where each farmer-beneficiary received P3,000 cash and food items consist of half sack rice and five kilos dressed chicken.

Abdullah said the assistance forms part of the DA’s initiative to provide aid to those farmer individuals not included as recipients of the Special Amelioration Program (SAP) of the national government. “The department recognized the ill-effects of the pandemic of Covid-19 to our small corn farmers and how they suffer the consequences that is why the DA came up with program to alleviate their unfavorable situation”, Abdullah said during the opening of the activity.

For her part, Lana said, a large number of coconut farmers have incurred heavy losses because of the pandemic and the PCA has also came up with a program to help them. “We know how much our small coconut farmer took the tool of this Covid-19 pandemic.

On the other hand, Aton said the City Agriculturist Office provided the list of qualified beneficiaries to the DA and PCA which consist of farmers having only one hectare of coconuts or corn whose livelihood are highly affected by the pandemic.

Aton further informed that all in all the recipients comprised of some 136 coconut farmers and 4 corn farmers from Kidapawan and 20 coconut farmers and 6 corn farmers based in the Municipality of Kabacan who were included in the distribution. 

Expressing his gratitude to the program, Kidapawan City Mayor Joseph A. Evangelista said he is more than happy to know that the programs and projects of the City Government for the affected farmers coincides with that of the DA and PCA especially in recovering from the pandemic.

“The City Government continues to create programs aimed at helping the agriculture sector and to strengthen food sufficiency as this is very important in this time of pandemic”, said Mayor Evangelista adding that practically everybody is a victim of the Covid-19 pandemic, especially our farmers who had difficulties in transporting and selling their harvest.  The mayor then underscored the City Government of Kidapawan’s focus on agriculture this year which include distribution of free seedlings and fertilizers, hogs and other livestock, animal feeds, technical trainings and capacity building for crop planters and growers. (CIO-AJPME/jscj)