The Bago City government and Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) each turned over funding to the Barangay Don Jorge L. Araneta Agrarian Reform Cooperative yesterday at the City Mayor’s Office for the association’s farm business school project. The city government allocated P75,000, while DAR gave P175,000.
According to the cooperative, the project intends to improve knowledge on farming, adjust business attitudes, and enhance entrepreneurial skills with a goal of making local farms more profitable and sustainable.
Present for the turnover were Jeremiah Barrientos, Ma. Teresa Araneta, Hannah Gustilo, and Frenie Gomez from DAR; along with cooperative representatives Mimi F. Salioc, Jenelyn Babor, and Ma. Cecilia Solis.
Last month, during his State of the City Address, Bago City Mayor Nicholas Yulo lauded the city’s rice development program.
According to the mayor, the program has increased the city’s annual yield from 3.92 metric tons (MT) in 2016 to 4.43 MT in 2018. He also noted, the locality is currently at 263.8 percent rice sufficiency.
In addition, earlier this year, Sitio Camingawan, located in the city’s Barangay Taloc, hosted the Field Day and Harvest Festival, which highlighted mechanized farming, with Bago City earlier identified as a pilot area for the province’s Farm Mechanization Program./WDJ