CHAIR of the City Council Committee on Trade and Commerce George S. Goking on Saturday said he is hoping that through the proposed Mega Farm Project in 2023, the aspiration to decrease the price of rice to around P20 per kilo can be achieved.
It was learned that the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) has crafted a strategy to realize the goal of President-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for a cheaper price of rice.
Goking said that based on the goal of the project, it will initially seek to cover 79 agrarian reform communities, involving 3,950 agrarian reform beneficiaries who are tilling approximately 4,000 hectares of land in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
The Programang Benting Bigas sa Mamamayan (PBBM) program of the incoming administration, the shift away from subsistence farming or merely planting and harvesting so they have something to eat – towards trade and product exports.
The project, according to Goking, would help local farmers shift away from subsistence farming – or merely planting and harvesting so they have something to eat – towards trade and product exports.
“That ‘mega-farm' as DAR explained will also spur the creation of job opportunities in the process,” said Goking.
Goking said he is supporting the project as the government will intervene and farmers need not to be confronted with serious rice production problems as seedlings, fertilizers and pesticides will be supported by the national government.
He said the establishment of mega-farms complete with facilities and industries in the areas may pave the way for the growth of new urban centers that would radiate to the rural areas.
“It's a local farmers' empowerment,” Goking said putting in that the program also aims to enhance food self-sufficiency.
According to DAR officials, Goking said they link up with institutional and commercial buyers of raw farm products and ease poverty in the countryside.
They sees a bright future in the project especially since DAR has already stepped up the distribution of lands in the past six years, said Goking.
Based on its data, DAR has distributed 168,238 hectares of farmland to agrarian reform beneficiaries from July 2016 until June 2020, he said.
Under the mega-farm project, Goking also saw it will be beneficial for individual farmers who now own land to enter into commercial and agri-venture arrangements so that they can enter into supply contracts.
Goking said the plan will be very beneficial to the Filipino people. He is optimistic that the economy will gradually recover, and that the plan will be realized. (Ben Balce)
