A group of farmers based in Medellin, Cebu, received funds and farming starter kits from the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to help them start and sustain a livelihood project.
DAR Cebu Provincial Agrarian Reform Program Officer Lilian B. Guanzon said the Don Virgilio Gonzales Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Association, a DAR-assisted organization, received the aid through the DAR’s ‘Buhay sa Gulay’ project, launched last December.
However, the implementation of the project was delayed because of typhoon Odette, according to Guanzon.
The organization was provided with starter kits consisting of vegetable seeds, fertilizers and gardening equipment worth P63,000. The project site is the 5,000-square meter land of agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) in Barangay Don Virgilio.
According to Guanzon, the project aims to promote the importance of “high-value farming” among ARBs “to encourage them to have an alternative source of income by planting and selling fresh vegetables.”
Fernando Jumao-as, chairman of the association, expressed appreciation to the DAR for the vegetable seeds and garden equipment they received from the agency and promised to sustain the project.
Jumao-as said they have planted okra, string beans, pepper and pechay. He added they expect their first harvest by the end of April.
Marmee Padul of the DAR Program Beneficiaries Development Division said the project is implemented under the agency’s Farm Business School, a program for farmers to effectively manage their farm produce and optimize their profitability.
Padul challenged the farmer-members to put into practice what they have learned from Farm Business School for their crops and farms to flourish. The association, with 88 members, was organized in 2020 during the Covid-19
pandemic.