DA Caraga Supports EARTH HOUR

In adherence to the principle that climate change is everybody’s concern, the Department of Agriculture Caraga will support the observance of the World Wide Fund’s Earth Hour 2016 campaign.

Pursuant to the memorandum from DA Central Office, DA Caraga Regional Director Edna Mabeza issued a memorandum encouraging all of its employees and staff to take part of the said endeavor.

“The campaign is our way of sending an even stronger message to take action on global warming,” Mabeza stated.

Agriculture is a vulnerable sector in climate change since crops will be affected by changes of temperature and emergence of pests and diseases would be possible, thus resiliency is a big factor in order for the agriculture sector to sustain amidst the threat of climate change. 

Earth Hour is scheduled this coming March 19, 2016 from 8:30 pm to 9:30 pm.

WWF for Nature encourages all stakeholders to switch-off or dim non-essential lights, including streetlights; signages and key monuments. 

Aside from participating the “global lights out”, WWF also encourages everyone to take action against climate change even beyond by publicly promoting renewed ways or practices of initiating change, which can include environmental projects that the offices and individuals are willing to undertake throughout the year.

Now on its 10^th year, Earth Hour global campaign showcases what can and is being done all over the world to combat climate change. It is a wordwide initiative showing how individuals, communities, businesses and governments can address the threat of global warming working together.

In 2012, Philippines clinched the top spot for four straight years with 1,671 cities, provinces and municipalities participating.

Rough estimates peg the power saved to be at least 362MWh during the 60 minute blackout. A drop of 214 MWh was recorded for the Luzon grid, 91 MWh for Mindanao and 57 MWh for the Visayas.

WWF for Nature is the world’s largest and most experienced conservation organization, operating in over 100 countries.

In the Philipines, it helps communities adapt to climate change, secure food and water sources, conserve local ecosystems and species, minimize ecological impacts of development and promote renewable sources of clean energy. (Aurelius P. Arais/DA Caraga).

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DA Caraga Bridges the Future for IPs

True to its commitment to help improve the lives of indigenous people (IPs), the Department of Agriculture Caraga will provide farm equipments to Manobo community in La Paz, Agusan del Sur.

MOA Signing between Manobo Community and DA for corn development

A signing of the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) was inked between DA Caraga and Manobo Indigenous Cultural Community of Agusan, Incorporated (MICCA Inc.) based in Brgy. Kasapa II, La Paz, Agusan del Sur held at DA Regional Office today March 3, 2016.

DA Caraga was represented by Regional Director Edna Mabeza while MICCA Inc. was represented by its president Pedro Francisco Hernandez known as Datu Bunanat.

The Manobo community is set to receive one unit of a 4 wheel drive farm tractor, one unit corn mill and one unit corn sheller worth P2.5M.

Hernandez said that the support of the Department of Agriculture is the realization of their hopes and aspirations to improve the IP community.

“This is not only an opportunity for people of La Paz, it is the future of our town,” Datu Bunanat said.

He said that the provisions from DA will help them in developing initially the five-hectare land to be planted with corn.

Members of the group envisioned to expand the corn areas to come up with a plantation type of operation along with other commodities suitable for their area.

DA’s support to the Manobo community of La Paz complemented the vision of LGU to increase production efficiency and reduce production costs by mechanizing critical field operation and contribute to the food sufficiency program of the government.

DA RFO 13 is implementing the Corn Program, a major component of the Medium Term Agriculture Development Plan to ensure national sufficiency in corn and promote empowerment in the countryside by enabling farmers to raise their income. (Aurelius P. Arais/DA Caraga)

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DA Caraga Reaches out to LGU agri extension workers

DA RFO 13 Corn Coordinator Rebecca Atega answer queries from AEWs

To keep abreast on the latest developments on corn industry and to ensure proper coordination, the Department of Agriculture Caraga conducted a retooling for the local government units (LGU) based agricultural extension workers (AEWs) last February 29 - March 1, 2016 in Butuan City.

The retooling and technical briefing of the AEWs was spearheaded by the AgriPinoy Corn Program attended by extension workers designated to corn and cassava on their respective local government units as well as with municipal and provincial corn coordinators.

Considering the number of AEWs in the region, two batches of training will be conducted wherein the recent batch of participants were from municipalities in Agusan del Norte including Butuan City, Surigao del Norte, and the Province of Dinagat Islands while the second batch will be held in Surigao del Sur on the later part of the first quarter for participants coming from Surigao del Sur and Agusan del Sur. 

Aljurie Galos of Claver Surigao del Norte, a first time participant on the said training said that the activity was knowledge enhancing and very useful for the farmers in their area.

“As a young member of the corn program, I’ve learned a lot from this training especially the technical aspects such as the quality control and environmental management,” he said.

Field Operations Division Chief Rebecca Atega, who is also the corn and cassava program coordinator answered queries from the participants so as to attain common level of understanding among regional and LGU program implementers.

Proper coordination between DA and LGU are very crucial link in the delivery of services to the farmers to ensure that the target set for CY 2016 will be met by the end of the year.

The involvement of the local government units thru its AEWs plays a big role in the implementation of projects and programs for agricultural development in the region. (Aurelius P. Arais/DA Caraga)

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DA-BUB Lowers Farm Expenses

Farmers can slash down their expenses by half during land preparation through farm mechanization.

This was proven true by farmers in Trento, Agusan del Sur who were beneficiaries of the Bottom-up Budgeting (BUB) pre and post harvest facilities.

In 2014, six farmer associations in Trento, Agusan del Sur became recipient of BUB’s pre and post harvest facilities such as thresher and floating tiller implemented by the Department of Agriculture and the local government unit of Trento.

“Before the farm implements from BUB arrived, I use to hire privately owned floating tiller including labor for a fee of P850.00. But with BUBs intervention, we only need to pay P444.00,” says Bernado Paña, a farmer and a member of TIBARAO Irrigators Association.

Meanwhile Ronnie Fancobila, chairperson of the TREKA Irrigators Association said that BUB’s pre and post harvest facilities is an answer to their needs.

“Considering the 120 members in our association, the existing farm machines in our community is not enough to accommodate the demand during land preparation but with additional unit from BUB it helps a lot,” Fancobila said.

Meanwhile, Trento Municipal Agriculture Office conducts regular monitoring to ensure the sustainability of BUB projects.

“We have regular monitoring with our agricultural extension workers to check the status of the equipment, I even require the associations to submit the lists of farmers being served by the equipment,” Municipal Agriculturist Norma dela Cruz said.

Seeing the potential of improving the lives of the farmers, farm mechanization is being pushed by the Department of Agriculture through its regular and special programs such as the Bottom-up Budgeting (BUB).

BUB is one of the major reform initiatives of the Aquino administration and has been seen as a component of its budget reform thrusts that are aimed at making the national government budgeting process more responsive to local needs. (Aurelius P. Arais/DA Caraga)

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