LAOAG CITY — Farmers here are back on their toes, preparing their lands for the next cropping season.
With government-funded farm machinery from the Department of Agriculture, Solsona Mayor Alexander Calucag has offered the free tilling of farmlands in all of the town’s barangays as part of a rehabilitation and recovery program to help farmers heavily affected by the onslaught of Typhoon Ompong.
Solsona’s local government, through its Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (MDRRMO), prepared a daily schedule from Sept. 26 to Oct. 25 so operators of farm tractors could hop from one barangay to the next and provide free tilling services.
To ensure the smooth implementation of the program, the MDRRMO told farmers to coordinate with village officials and have their names listed to avail of the free tilling services.
While watching his rice farm being tilled on Monday, Wilfred Baguio of Barangay Mariquet said he is grateful for the government assistance.
“This is (a) very, very nice initiative from the government. We can sleep better at night not worrying about the high cost of farming,” Baguio said, noting that he was able to save about PHP5,000 for tilling alone.
To date, a private farm tractor operator charges farmers 50 cents per square meter.
Farmer, Juliet Tolentino, said only under the current administration has she encountered a program like this.
Aside from the provision of free tilling and seeds subsidy, other government agencies and institutions also provided farmers “soft or interest-free” loans to save subsistent farmers from being taken advantage of by usurers and cartels. ( Leilanie Adriano/PNA)
