By Annabel Consuelo Petinglay/Philippine News Agency
SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique — The Office of the Provincial Agriculturist (OPA) here is now distributing 225 bags of registered seeds under the Seed Exchange program.
OPA senior agriculturist Ramona Dela Vega said in an interview Tuesday that the Seed Exchange program is intended for farmers trained by the Department of Agriculture (DA) Region 6 (Western Visayas) for them to produce good quality seeds that will be made available to other farmers.
“We are in the process of distributing the registered seeds to the farmers in 12 municipalities who have been trained to plant registered seeds,” she said.
She said that 276 farmers were already trained for the seed exchange program. They came from Pandan, Hamtic, San Jose de Buenavista, Tibiao, Sibalom, Bugasong, Laua-an, Barbaza, San Remigio, Patnongon, Culasi, and Sebaste for planting this first cropping period.
“Under the seed exchange program, the trained farmers through their farmers’ associations will make available to other farmers their produce,” she said.
She said that it depends on the farmers’ associations in the 12 municipalities if they will sell the product to other farmers or just give it for free.
“The only purpose of the seed exchange is to make the registered seeds available to other farmers,” she said.
“For the trained farmers who have not yet availed of the registered seeds they are being advised to coordinate with their Municipal Agriculture Officers,” de la Vega said.
She added that the 225 bags of registered seeds could be planted to the 225 hectares of farmlands.
Registered seeds are spawned from foundation seeds which are pure seed stock grown by or under the supervision of a public agency.
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