De Venecia lauds DA’s farm mechanization program

By August 23, 2015Business, News

STA.BARBARA– Fourth District Congresswoman Gina de Venecia hailed the farm mechanization program of the Department of Agriculture (DA) when she presided over the turnover of farm machines to members of 14 farmers cooperatives and association from San Fabian, San Jacinto and Manaoag.

The farm machineries included a combined harvester and thresher, four-wheel tractors, mini tractors and water pumps with engines, all of which came from the Department of Agriculture.

Together with her husband, former Speaker Jose de Venecia, she thanked the Aquino administration for initiating the farm mechanization program in 2010 that revolutionized and modernized agriculture in the Philippines, particularly Pangasinan, the third largest rice-producing province in the country.

She said with the onset of mechanized farming, many young people are now going back to the farms to take over from their ageing parents.

This was gleaned from a survey of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) that the average age of farmers today is 43, whereas it was 57 years old in the past, which means there are more young people being attracted to agriculture now as compared before. 

The new farm equipment, made in Japan and Korea and USA, were  purchased by the Department of Agriculture under a scheme that requires 15 percent of the cost shared by farmers cooperatives and associations.

Representing DA Regional Director Valenrin Perdido in the turnover was Pangasinan Research and Experiment Center OIC Gilbert Rabara Jr.

De Venecia reported to farmers that her House Bill 2074 or the proposed Expanded Crop Insurance Law was already passed by the House of Representatives and is now pending in the Senate. 

If this is approved into law, it will provide protection to the investments of farmers in their farms against losses that may be brought about by calamities, such as flood, drought and earthquakes.

“We know that our own Fourth District is visited yearly by typhoons and floods, that is why this bill is very useful to all of us”, she added.

She said the proposed law will cover not only possible losses in rice and corn but also those in inland fishery as well as livestock and poultry. (Leonardo Micua)

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