IN his short but productive interaction with farmers and fishermen in 140 barangays of the Fourth District of Pangasinan, Toff de Venecia, son of former Speaker Joe de Venecia and Congresswoman Manay Gina de Venecia, confessed finding farming an exotic vocation and has developed quite a passion for it.

That is why he is attending an organic farming immersion seminar at Costales Farm in Laguna soon to be able to experience farming hands-on and be able to push his agenda in Congress to help farmers in his district earn more to improve their lives and of their families.

Growing up and schooled in one of the best universities in Manila, the young De Venecia admits knowing nothing about farming and considers it as “an encounter with another kind” but as a young upstart in public service, he is willing to listen and learn from the experts, the farmers themselves.

As a matter of fact, he admits having learned a lot when he rubbed elbows with farmers and fishermen in his non-stop rounds of his district.

“I love tourism and now farming. Tourism for me is the creative way to provide jobs, said the 29-year old De Venecia.

De Venecia’s forte is in arts and theaters as well as in acting because as a boy, he played the role of Billy Bilyonaryo” on television.

He was never exposed to agriculture but wants to duplicate what his father, former Speaker De Venecia did when he made their lots in front of their home in Bonuan Binloc some years ago as a show window in modern vegetable farming and fish culture.

Endorsing agri-business as well as tourism in the Fourth District of Pangasinan, Toff can not help but mention the Bukid Revolution being initiated by former Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas which he says jibes well with his program in the fourth district of Pangasinan.

The Bukid Revolution, he said, sees to empower farmers by prioritizing investments on all the things that they need so that they can produce more out of their limited farm lands.

The “Bukid Revolution”, he said, calls for bigger investments in post-harvest facilities, after catch-harvest facilities for fishermen and more irrigation systems so that more lands can be cultivated and be made productive even during the dry season.

De Venecia considers Roxas as the only presidential candidate with a viable program in agriculture that could the country less dependent on foreign export and even a food importing country.

But before the country can do this, the first thing it must do is to abolish irrigation fees which had become a burden since time immemorial to Filipino farmers who are charged P1,000 per hectare during the wet season and P1,500 per hectare during the dry season for using water flowing from National Irrigation Administration (NIA) canals.

“Our ASEAN neighbors from which we now import rice, Vietnam and Thailand, from which we import rice, do not charge the farmers irrigation fees and instead provide them subsidies as their incentives to produce more,” he said, adding that the Philippines is the only country in the world that charges irrigation fees.

Saying he wants to be closer to the farmers, De Venecia calls on them to organize cooperatives so that as a group they can buy farm inputs in bulk and avail of bigger discounts from dealers of products.

He said the cooperative can provide loans on easy terms to their members so that they will stop borrowing money from loan sharks that charge them high interest rates.

Moreover, he wants that  all the agricultural areas in the fourth district of Pangasinan led by San Jacinto which he wants to develop as an agri-business and tourism hub, to undergo soil testing to find out if these are suitable for crop rotation which they must do to preserve the fertility of the soil.

On top of that, De Venecia wants farmers to plant high-value crops, one of them soya beans, so that they can earn more.

For fishermen, he said, they must also grow malaga (siganid), sea bass, sea and cucumber aside from tilapia and bangus.

He sees the big potential of San Jacinto which he said is teeming with rolling and flat lands and where some of the food crops such as rice corn, vegetables supplying the needs of the people of the fourth district are coming from.

De Venecia said it is only Roxas, among the five presidential candidates, who has a clear agenda to improve the lives farmers and fishermen in the country.

With Roxas’ “Bukid Revolution”, it can accelerate the country’s agriculture and make the Filipinos self-sufficient in food, he said.

De Venecia and his mom Gina, leader of the yellow brigade in Pangasinan, are now criss-crossing district boundaries to campaign for their candidates Mar Roxas and Leni Robredo.

They were in the Fifth and Sixth districts on Friday and had just been to the first and second district less than a week before.

Share your Comments or Reactions

comments

Powered by Facebook Comments