by Miriam G. Desacada
Tacloban City–The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) on Tuesday (August 8) turned over P1.3 million-worth of farm machineries and equipment, with hybrid seeds and organic fertilizer, to the Barobaybay Farmers Association (BFA) in Barangay Barobaybay of the coastal town of Calbiga in Samar province.
DAR officials, led by Provincial Agrarian Reform Program Officer (PARPO) Alfonso Catorce, administered the turnover of the farm inputs, which were funded under the Major Crop-Based Block Farm Productivity of the DAR’s Climate Resilient Farm Productivity Support (CRFPS) program.
“This is no longer a dream,” remarked Roque Pacuan, BFA president, upon receiving the agricultural inputs that they long desired to have from the government. He also conveyed the organization’s gratitude to the DAR for realizing their dream.
BFA is an organization of 62 rice farmers, 55 of them agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs), of Calbiga’s remote Barangay Barobaybay who had long been wanting to own farm machineries to make farming easy for them.
Thelma Alfaro, chief of DAR’s Program Beneficiaries Development Division (PBDD), itemized the farm machineries and equipment turned over to the BFA are two threshers, two turtle-type tractors, two hand tractors, two water pumps, four grass cutters, and three knapsack sprayers.
She added that each member of the organization also received a sack of hybrid rice seeds and organic fertilizer. She however clarified to them that the turnover document that Catorce and Pacuan had signed was a Trust Agreement.
The Trust Agreement stipulated that DAR will be monitoring over a six-month period how the farm machineries and equipment—termed as common service facilities (CSFs)—given to the BFA are being utilized, she said.
Alfaro explained to the BFA members that if the CSFs are left unused over the time frame, or used for other purposes other than the organization’s, DAR will pull these out and give these to other ARBOs instead. But if the CSFs are used and managed well, the DAR will then execute the official deed of donation to the BFA, she said.
Catorce, in his speech during the turnover ceremony, assured the BFA and its members that DAR “will continue supporting you.” He further said that the granting of farm inputs to them is part of DAR Secretary Conrado Estrella III’s nine major goals that the department must accomplish.
Municipal Agriculturist Irlyn Marabe, who represented Calbiga Mayor Red Nacario during the event, thanked the effort of the DAR, which she said “contributed much to the agricultural production of the town.” Calbiga is now one of the top rice producers in Samar province with an average output of 4.5 tons per year, she said.
Marabe further mention BFA’s need of a warehouse, but which she hinted can be provided by the LGU itself. She advised the BFA to write a letter to Mayor Nacario officially requesting for a warehouse to store their produce at the barangay.
Municipal Agrarian Reform Program Officer (MARPO) Baltazar Anadon shared to all that BFA members have been cultivating about 50 hectares of rice land. —Miriam G. Desacada