Agriculture Secretary William Dar explains benefits of farmers’ coops. Contributed photo
TARLAC CITY—The Department of Agriculture and the Development Bank of the Philippines urged farmers here to form or join cooperatives.
“A cooperative gives power to you farmers, it helps you stand on your own which makes you strong not only in production but more importantly in the market,” enthused Agriculture Secretary William Dar in his visit at the Citicore Agrosolar Plant.
The extension services of the government such as machinery distribution, shared service facilities construction and others are easily cascaded to cooperatives, he noted.
“We want to have cluster farming through cooperatives because individual farming can no longer exist in a long-term manner,” Dar said.
The secretary encouraged Mayor Cristy Angeles to form a cooperative for the whole city to avail the members of a large amount of credit that will improve the production and distribution of farmers’ crops.
In response, Angeles guaranteed the city government’s efforts in this venture: “We have close to 28,000 hectares of agricultural land and we have about 7,466 farmers in the city so rest assured we will tie up with you and DBP to help our farmers.”
For his part, DBP president Emmanuel Herbosa seconded Dar’s vision in helping farmers improve their livelihood.
“Our main driving force in DBP is to give hope that’s why we partnered very closely with DA to provide financially to our farmers,” he said.
Dar lauded the Agrosolar Plant conceptualized by Citicore to use renewable energy in agriculture: “Congratulations Citicore for having this project which will also help our farmers and the community around it because 50 percent of the proceeds go to them.”
Agrosolar is a new farming technology aimed at reducing agricultural production cost using renewable energy. — Gabriela Liana Barela/PIA-3
