Kalinga gets P10.8M projects from DAR

CITY OF TABUK, Kalinga, May 3 (PIA) - The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) launched three projects with total cost of P10.8 million to help uplift the economic condition of farmers in the province.

Agustina Duyan of DAR-Kalinga said the projects are the Links Farm Program that empowers farmers become entrepreneurs by providing them access to service providers. It has funding of P3.6M and will be implemented until 2020. The farmers are linked to institutions for training, technology, finance and marketing assistance.

Developing farmers become product processors opens opportunities for them to maximize profit from their farm produce instead of just selling their raw farm products to traders, Duyan said.

The Sugar Block Farming Project costing P6M will enhance sugar production which is becoming a major industry among farmers here. This will equip sugar farmers with technology on hybrid sugarcane production through establishment of nurseries right in sugarcane farms.

The Partnership Against Hunger and Poverty project with cost of P1.2M aims to address problems on malnutrition, hunger and poverty especially among daycare children.

Duyan explained that under the program, nutrition needs from the womb until daycare age of children are met through tie-ups with the Department of Social Welfare and Development and Department of Agriculture. Other partners are the LGUs of Tanudan, Pasil and Pinukpuk.

The newly launched programs are part of government’s move to improve the agriculture sector, which is seen as the ‘backbone’ of the national economy.