KDF to sponsor 30 farmers for model farm program

SANTA RITA — Following its announcement on the establishment of model farms in Central Luzon, the Kapampangan Development Foundation (KDF) is set to sponsor 30 farmers for its model farm program.

KDF said in a statement that it will sponsor 30 farmers in different parts of Pampanga who have modest financial capability to put up a model farm where the other farmers can learn from.

Products to be planted will include cacao, mangosteen, durian, rambutan, and lanzones (duco and longkong varieties). For fast revenue streams, they will be planting vegetables and raising roaming animals and fish in small ponds, KDF trustee Sylvia Ordonez said.

Though all the financial needs will be filled by the owners themselves, in exchange for agreeing to be model farms and helping others, they will be provided free of charge seedlings. The KDF, together with its partners, will provide them the protocol and advice regarding the latest and most costeffective technologies.

Ordonez added that this will include but not limited to appropriate soil conditioning technologies, use of probiotics, production and application of organic fertilizers (e.g. vermiculture), drip irrigation, and water harvesting “which can double as fishponds.”

KDF has already made arrangements with different government agencies such as Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA), Department of Agriculture (DA) Region III’s high value crops program, the Bureau of Plant Industry, and the National Cacao Council spearheaded by the DA and the Department of Trade and Industry, according to Ordonez.

Among its partners in the private sector are the five-coalition Agri-Fisheries Alliance (the most important being the Alyansa Agrikultura with 42 federations of farmers and fisherfolk and the Coalition for Agriculture Modernization in the Philippines- CAMP where science and technology from the universities and research centers can be obtained from all over the country), and the Pampanga Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. The Rotary Club of Mabalacat will provide KDF the initial financial support to hire the technical personnel needed and establishment of a model seedling nursery.