THE Department of Agriculture – Cordillera (DA-CAR) in partnership with the office of former Senator Francis Pangilinan on Tuesday distributed machinery and equipment to 223 farmers’ cooperatives and associations in Abra, Apayao, Benguet, and Ifugao.
The equipment turned over cost some P21 million, given free of charge to the Cordilleran farmers.
DA-Cordillera Director Cameron Odsey said the recipients received 93 multi-cultivators, 212 power sprayers, 88 grass cutters, and 20 mini-chainsaws.
The assistance is part of intervention programs intended to bolster communities engaged in high-value crop farming. The aim is to increase productivity while lowering labor cost to achieve sustainable agriculture in the region.
According to Odsey, the supplemental budget in the High-Value Crops Development Program of DA-Cordillera was the initiative of Pangilinan.
The DA-CAR continues to invest into the agricultural sector of the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), with many bigger-ticket projects in the works for the beneficiaries in the region.
Earlier in the year, the DA-CAR approved some P308 million worth of agricultural projects to benefit farmers in the region.
The DA-CAR has also continued work on expanding the connectivity of the agricultural sector to markets in the region through expanding the farm-to-market road networks with more such roads.
