CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – Isn’t P18 million too much for the “pinakbet” dish in Bulacan?
Not if the funds are intended to revive the production of vegetables used as ingredients in cooking pinakbet in a province widely devastated by floods dumped during the last typhoons Pedring and Quiel.
Farmers in Bulacan received yesterday checks totaling P18 million from Agriculture Sec. Proceso Alcala who visited various farmlands damaged by flooding in the province.
The project to revive vegetable production in the province has been dubbed “Project Pinakbet.”
Alcala handed over the checks to the farmers during a forum yesterday in Barangay Tartaro in San Miguel town.
The affair was organized by the Department of Agriculture (DA) as part of Alcala’s “dalaw distrito” project nationwide.
During the recent floods, Bulacan suffered an estimated P1 billion in rice crops, P220 million in fisheries, P157 million in vegetables and P6 million in livestock, the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said in a report.
The DA in Bulacan said that the beneficiaries of the P18 million “pinakbet fund” included the San Ildefonso Vegetable Growers Multi-Purpose Cooperative and Balong Vegetable Farmers Multi-Purpose Cooperative which got P9 million each for 411 farmers whose vegetable farms covering 210 hectares were destroyed.
The DA provincial office said the P18 million assistance would help the farmers recover their losses and solve local shortage of vegetables whose prices have remained high.
Pinakbet is an Ilocano dish of sautéed slices of eggplant, bitter gourd, squash, and string beans cooked with fish paste or bagoong and pork meat.
“The Department of Agriculture recognizes the critical role of developing and sustaining strategic food sources and stable food supply to support the food requirement of the country especially of the National Capital Region as a major food consuming region,” said the DA provincial office in a statement released during Alcala’s visit.
