DA RFU 13 Grand Champion on Butuan Balangay Festival Silver Year

One of the spectacular actions during the presentation in Libertad Sports Complex, Butuan City. (Note: the guy in a formal attire is your blogger himself, dramatizing as  Mayor Amante)

Yes, we’ve made it again!

For the second time around, the Department of Agriculture Regional Field Unit 13 proved its worth not just in curbing hunger but also in the field of cultural dance competition.

This after DA Caraga emerged once more as grand champion during the Balangay Theater Float Parade and Competition held last May 19, 2012 as one of the highlights of the Balangay 
Festival Silver Year Celebration here in Butuan City.

Despite of the scorching heat of the sun, DA dancers gracefully and lively danced to the ethnic tune of the gong and other indigenous musical instruments to the amazement of the crowd.

The activity started with the float parade participated by different government agencies as well as private companies commencing from Montilla  Boulevard plying through J.C. Aquino Avenue.

All walks of life, filled along the streets especially along Gaisano Mall where participating agencies do their initial cultural showdown. 

But most of the spectators were jam packed at the Libertad Spots Complex where the final cultural presentation took place.
 

Six competing agencies vie for the award.

After the thorough evaluation of the judges, participating agencies were eagerly waited for the announcement of the winners.
    

As the announcement of winners came, every tick of the second adds thrill. On top of her voice, the lady master of ceremony uttered the Department of Agriculture Caraga Regional Office as the grand champion.

The whole sports complex was filled with great joy, more so with the DA dancers themselves who painstakingly do their part in making the presentation in a superb level.

DA RFU 13 bagged two awards. The Most Colorful and Attractive Float with a corresponding cash prize of P25,000.00 and the Best on Cultural Presentation with a cash prize of P 125,000.00.

OIC Regional Executive Director Edna Mabeza, Regional Technical Director (RTD) and Admin and Finance Chief Jessica Daan cheerfully received the award and trophy handed over by the organizers headed by Butuan City Mayor Ferdinand Amante, Jr.

Other winner on float category includes Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) who grabbed the Most Unique Float and Cultural Revival International who bagged the Most Dramatic Float.

Meanwhile on the cultural presentation, Cultural Revival got the third prize and the second prize was bagged by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

Non winners received consolation prizes. (Aurell P. Arais/ RAFID DA CARAGA)

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DA’s Asec Delima to Farmers: “Maging Paki-alamiro”

DA Assistant Secretary Dante S. Delima (insert on upper left) 

addresses during the national convention of P4MP urging 

the participants to be vigilant for good governance.

Maki-alam ! (Be involved).

This urged Assistant Secretrary Dante Delima to the participants of the Pambansang Mannalon, Mag-uuma, Magbabaul, Magsasaka ng Pilipinas (P4MP) National Convention held just recently here in city of Butuan.

Delima who was the guest of honor said that farmer leaders should continuously take part of the programs of the government.

“Kailangan ninyong patuloy na makialam sa mga programa at proyekto ng ating department. Kailangan ninyong gawin ‘yan.” (You should continuously take part on the programs and projects of our department. It is a must to do”  Delima said.

He said that the department needs people who are vigilant to wake those employees who are not performing their duties well.

“Dahil kung hindi kayo maki-alam walang gigising sa mga nakatulog na mga tauhan sa Department of Agriculture. Kailaingan namin kayo, kalingan namin ang inyong paki-alam” (If you will not take part nobody would wake DA’s staff who are sleeping. We need you, we badly need your vigilance”, he said.

Delima urged to more or less 200 farmer leaders who attended the nationwide convention to practice the so called claim-making process.  He elaborated that people should claim on what is due to them.

“Ang budget para sa pamahalaan lalo na sa Department of Agriculture para sa mga magsakaka, ay kung para sa mga magsasaka, ‘yan kailangan natin itong i-claim” (The government budget particularly of DA is for the farmers, so if it is due for the farmers, we must have to claim it), said Delima.

Moreover Delima said that if the government has hard times in answering all needs of the people,”tulungan na lang natin ang pamahalaan, sana magkaisa tayo  d’yan” (let’s help our government, let’s have unity).

Delima also said that people should not wait for the government to do something for them for their future but people should also take their move.

“We should be practical; we need to help the government” he said.

He said that farmer associations just like P4MP have a big role in helping the government to serve the public candidly.

He stressed that having conventions or forums or various available technologies is not enough to answer the need of the people. 

“Ang kailangan ay pagbabago at reporma. Ang kailangan ay bagong enerhiya at disiplina” (What we need is change and reform. What we need is new vigor and discipline), he said.

Delima who is the AgriPinoy National Rice Program Coordinator said that the ultimate goal nowadays is not only to attain rice sufficiency and other food staples but the livelihood security of the agricultural sector.

P4MP or Pambansang Mannalon, Mag-uuma, Magbabaul at Magsasaka ng Pilipinas is a national federation aimed to institutionalize and strengthen the village level organization of farmers and fisherfolks. (Aurell P. Arais/RAFID DA CARAGA)

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DA-DepEd Intensify Gulayan sa Paaralan Program

GPP Organic Vegetable Training held in DepEd Provincial Training Center, Surigao City

Surigao City – Seeing teachers confined in the four corner of the classroom is now a scenario in the past as nowadays we may have seen them teaching how to plant vegetables in the garden.

Both the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Department of Education (DepEd) believed that teaching farming should start from early part of a person’s life, thus the Gulayan sa Paaralan Program was conceptualized.

In Surigao del Norte, around 40 teachers eagerly took part on the Gulayan sa Paaralan Program (GPP) Organic Vegetables Production Training held recently in DepEd Provincial Office in Surigao City.

Participants were coming from different schools under the Divisions of Surigao del Norte and Province of Dinagat Islands.

Agriculturist Benjamin Dalaguan of the Crops Division of DA Regional Field Office 13 said that the training is specially designed to make the teachers fully equipped with the right technology in teaching school gardening in an organic way.

“We purposely focus the training in Organic Vegetable Production so that pupils will be taught how to raise health foods and they themselves could somehow influence their parents and eventually to the community,” Dalaguan said.

Meanwhile, Dr. Evelyn Fetalvero, School Division Superintendent of Surigao del Norte also expressed her deepest gratitude to the Department of Agriculture in considering the teachers to take part on the noble project to mold the young mind of elementary pupils towards loving agriculture.

“We are always behind you. Let us propagate organic farming right from our own home, right from our own school,” she said.

Similar training had also been conducted in other provinces in Caraga Region.

Gulayan sa Paaralan is one of the strategy under the AgriPinoy emphasizing the importance of fostering partnerships and collaborative undertakings through sustainable agriculture.(Aurell P. Arais/RAFID DA CARAGA)

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