By Hilda Austria/PNA
LINGAYEN, Pangasinan — The Department of Agriculture (DA) bestowed anew to the province of Pangasinan the National Quality Corn Achievers Award, making the province a hall of famer after bagging the award for three consecutive years.
Provincial Agriculturist Dalisay Moya, who is also a hall of fame awardee for outstanding provincial agriculturist, in a radio interview on Tuesday, attributed the award to the high quality of food and seed grade with low aflatoxin level of the province’s corn produce.
“Aflatoxin is a carcinogenic toxin present in some corns, while in our corn in the province, it is very low and has no effect on animals’ and people’s health,” Moya said.
Aside from the quality of corn produced in the province, the initiatives of the local government unit (LGU) are also part of the evaluation, she said.
“Governor Amado Espino III, and even his father former Governor Amado Espino Jr., are farmers hence, they know the needs of the farmers such as livelihood projects, technologies, fertilizers, farm-to-market roads, among others. And they provide all these things to the farmers through the provincial government projects, while the farmers embrace all of these in order to make a good harvest or produce,” Moya added.
Pangasinan got the highest ranking on the evaluation of DA, with 104 out of 110 score in the rating for the National Quality Corn Achiever Award, she said.
The province produces 70 percent of all the corn production in the entire Region 1 (Ilocos region) with 6.3 metric tons per hectare, or 300,330 metric tons of corn produced by the Pangasinense farmers in 2017, ranking the province as top 5 corn producer in the entire country, Moya said.
“The farmers are the real heroes. If they do not plant, we will not have this award,” she said.
The award, along with the PHP5-million cash incentive, was conferred by DA on Nov. 15 at D’ Leonor Inland Resort in Davao City.
“This recognition proves that the provincial government works hand-in-hand with the farmers and shows that our combined efforts with our farmers are recognized by the national government,” Espino said, as he presented the award to the provincial government employees during the flag raising ceremony on Monday.
He further said the cash incentive will be used in provision of farm inputs, as well as farm equipment to further backstop the farmers sector in the province.
The municipality of Alcala is also a hall of fame awardee this year as outstanding municipality, while Sto. Tomas also received its second outstanding municipality for quality corn award.
