Iguig ARB Coop receives Php1M loan from Land Bank

The Eastern Iguig Multi-Purpose Cooperative (Eastern Iguig MPC) received a one million peso (Php1,000,000.00) loan from the Land Bank of the Philippines through the Credit Assistance Program for Program Beneficiaries Development (CAP-PBD) of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) for relending purposes to members of the cooperative. A symbolic one-million peso check was awarded by DAR ASEC Jose G. Grajeda on October 4, 2012 during the turn-over ceremony at barangay Sta. Barbara, Iguig, Cagayan.

Farmer-beneficiary members of Eastern Iguig MPC receiving the Php1million loan. 

The Credit Assistance Program for Program Beneficiaries Development (CAP-PBD) was conceptualized to provide credit support to Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries' organizations who cannot yet qualify under the accreditation criteria of government and private financing institutions. The said credit support aims to serve as a venue to develop the ARB organizations' entrepreneurial competence and credit worthiness, leading to their qualification to avail of the different credit windows of financial institutions.

Land Bank and DAR staff.

Each of the thirty-one (31) farmer-beneficiary member of the cooperative can avail P25,000 per hectare for rice production with an interest of two percent (2%) per month payable within one hundred eighty (180) days. /cds

DAR turns over Php15M road to LGU-Iguig

The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR-Region 02) turned over the concreted farm-to-market (FMR) road in favor of the Local Government Unit (LGU) of Iguig, Cagayan on October 4, 2012. The project costs P15,400,643.22 funded by DAR-Agrarian Reform Infrastructure Support Project (DAR-ARISP), Phase III.

Ribbon cutting: L-R: Hon. Juditas Trinidad, DAR Regional Director Atty. Marjorie Ayson-Alzate, PARO Gil Acasili and DAR ASEC  Jose Z. Grajeda. 

The DAR-ARISP III project is funded jointly by the Government of the Philippines through the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and by the Government of Japan through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). It involves a tripartite approach, a collaboration among the implementing agencies. It involves construction/rehabilitation of rural infrastructure such as irrigation facilities, farm-to-market roads, post harvest facilities, and rural water supply systems, agrarian reform information and marketing center building, development of coop-managed agri-business/rural enterprise/livelihood farmers’ organizations in the Agrarian Reform Communities (ARCs) through appropriate training and capacity building approaches.

The P15 million farm-to-market road (4.5 kms.) at Eastern Iguig Agrarian Reform Community. 

The 4.536-kilometer Farm-to-Market Road (FMR) traverses the barangays/villages of Minanga Sur, Sta. Barbara and San Esteban, which are also the component barangays of EASTERN IGUIG AGRARIAN REFORM COMMUNITY (Eastern Iguig ARC). An Agrarian Reform Community (ARC) is a barangay at the minimum or a cluster of contiguous barangays where there is a critical mass of farmers and farm workers awaiting the full implementation of agrarian reform. The farmers and the farm workers will anchor the integrated development of the area.

MARO Arthur Urata (speaking) and DF Edgar Cordova facilitated the realiztion of this DAR-ARISP project.  

The project was facilitated mainly by the DAR Municipal Agrarian Reform Officer, MARO Arthur Urata, presently assigned at DAR Municipal Office at Iguig, Cagayan and Edgar Cordova, the Development Facilitator (DF) at DARMO-Iguig. The project was strongly supported by the Local Government of Iguig led by the Mayor Hon. Juditas Trinidad and the Vice-Mayor, Hon. Ferdinand Trinidad as head of the Municipal Council.

Iguig town mayor, Hon. Juditas Trinidad

In the province of Cagayan, Farm-to-Market Roads are some of the support services being implemented under the agrarian reform program which traditionally serves to connect rural or agricultural areas to market towns, such as Tuguegarao City, where the major markets and distribution centers are located.

DAR Regional Director Atty. Marjorie Ayson-Alzate,

          The concrete farm-to-market road will provide the community with an all-weather barangay road and will also significantly help reduce the farmers’ costs of transporting their goods and reduce the travel time to the market and trading centers.

DAR ASEC Jose Z. Grajeda.

Project beneficiaries and stakeholders. 

The turn-over ceremony was attended by no less than DAR ASEC. Jose Z. Grajeda, DAR Regional Director, Atty. Marjorie Ayson-Alzate, PARO Virgilio Acasili, Mayor Juditas Trinidad, Vice-Mayor Ferdinand Trinidad, other public officials, members of the media, farmer-beneficiaries and other stakeholders. The event was facilitated by MARO Arthur Urata. cds/mtb
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DAR-Cagayan Tree Planting

The Department of Agrarian Reform Provincial Office (DARPO) in Tuguegarao City, Cagayan celebrated the 3^rd CARPER (R.A. No. 9700) Anniversary on August, 2012 with a tree planting activity at barangay Maddarulug, Solana, Cagayan wherein approximately 300 mahogany tree and other fruit tree seedlings were planted by the municipal agrarian reform officers (MAROs), division chiefs (CARPOs), and provincial agrarian reform officers (PAROs).   

For our children and our children's children...

The  tree planting activity is in line with the National Greening Program (NGP) pursuant to Executive Order No. 26, dated February 24, 2011 signed President Benigno S. Aquino, III which mandated the DA-DAR-DENR Convergence Initiative to develop a National Greening Program in cooperation with the Department of Education (DepEd), Commission on Higher Education (CHED), Department of Social Welfareand Development (DSWD), Department of Budget and Management (DBM), private sector and other concerned agencies and institutions. The program aims to plant trees on 1.5 million hectares for a period of six years from 2011 to 2016. It is a multi-sectoral project, as such, the project harmonizes all the greening efforts of both public and private sectors, such as the Upland Development Program, LuntiangPilipinas, etc.   

No, that's not an ARB, that's PARO Gil Acasili...

       Under the program, any individual, group, school, organization, or company can be a part of the NGP as a volunteer tree planter, or donor/sponsor of seedlings, planting tools, and other materials such as organic fertilizers. In fact, government employees and students (Grades 5-6, high school, and college) are expected to plant at least 10 seedlings a year.

A little more and we're done for today....

Barangays and state universities and colleges (SUCs) are also encouraged to establish nurseries for the NGP. The DAR is also targeting Agrarian Reform Communities (ARCs) to participate by encouraging them to establish nurseries and to plant fuel wood in order to reduce the need to cut down other trees for fuel.

Fertilizer please...

The NGP aims to plant a variety of trees such as, agroforestry species for the production zones and indigenous/native/endemic species for protection zones and urban areas.  /cds