Farmers claim seeds under GMA program substandard
MANGALDAN – Is there another agri scam in progress?
This suspicion was raised after some 170 farmers here have accused the municipal agriculture office of selling them substandard seeds under the government’s Ginintuang Masaganang Ani (GMA) 2006 program.
The farmers trooped to the Sangguniang Bayan (SB) session hall Monday in time for the council’s weekly session to air their complaint.
A farmer speaking for the group told the SB how the certified seeds they bought from the local agriculture office did not grow simultaneously, thus causing delays in the uprooting and transplanting activities. Furthermore, the grain yield did not meet the expected good harvest promised under the GMA 2006 program.
“Instead of increasing our harvest, what happened was just the other way around,” the farmer said.
The farmer said they suspect the seeds were possibly not of a high- yielding variety or worse, came from a batch of rejects.
Josie Vinluan, agriculture technician/inspector, defended the municipal agriculture office saying the seeds they sold to the farmers were supplied by the Department of Agriculture Region I office (DAR-Region 1).
Vinluan said the seeds, which were sourced from the DAR-Region 1’s warehouse in Villasis town, were properly sealed and passed through standard inspection procedures by the regional office before being delivered to the municipal office and picked up by the farmers.
She added that their office, confident that the seeds were already certified by the regional office, no longer opened the sacks for inspection.
The GMA 2006 program is a nationwide campaign intended to improve the earnings of the farmers in pilot areas that include the town of Mangaldan.
The SB said it will evaluate both the farmers’ complaint and the municipal agriculture office’s claim before deciding on a plan for action. — APE
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