BACOLOD CITY –– A total of 108 farmers in Negros Occidental were recognized for their accomplishments in the field of agriculture during the 2nd Food Production Heroes Assembly held at the Social Hall of the Provincial Capitol on Friday.
The awardees were led by Antonio Jesus Orbida for coconut and integrated farming, Richard Aquino for fisherfolk development, and Johnic de la Cruz for high-value crops.
Provincial Agriculturist Japhet Masculino, whose department organized the awarding rites, urged the Negrense farmers to continue serving as heroes by being role models, influencers, and partners of the government in agricultural development.
The province needs heroes amid the pressing challenges hounding the agriculture sector such as the impact of climate change, tariffication, high prices of agricultural commodities, and rising inflation rate, Masculino said.
“This is very timely as we need more farmer-heroes to become models to our farmers and fisherfolk,” he added.
This year’s awards theme is “Baganihan sa Kaumahan: Pagdaug sa Kabudlayan, Paghakos sa Kadalag-an,” which exhorts food production heroes to prevail over the challenges in the farming sector as well as celebrate and embrace their triumphs.
The awardees received farm inputs from the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist (OPA).
Those recognized have been previously awarded by the provincial government through its annual “Pasidungog sa Panguma kag Pangisda” during the Panaad sa Negros Festival last April.
Some of them were also recipients of regional and national awards given by the Department of Agriculture (DA) and other award-giving bodies.
Orbida, in his testimony, called on his fellow farmers to uphold the spirit of “bayanihan”.
Orbida, who is the executive director of PeacePond Farmers Association based in Binalbagan town, said theirs is just a small organization but every farmer-member is given the chance to contribute towards development.
“If you visit our farm, it will be the farmers who will tour and share with you our practices,” he said.
Part of the event was the oath-taking of the officers of Food Production Heroes Association headed by president Ramy Entierro of Himamaylan City before Manuel Olanday, supervising agriculturist of the DA Regional Field Office 6.
Dina Genzola, OPA provincial supervising agriculturist, said the food production heroes are part of the development of Negros Occidental.
“We hope the best practices of our awardees will be replicated by their fellow farmers,” she added. (Erwin Nicavera/PNA)
