Eastern Iguig Agrarian Reform Community receives P3.7M PWS project

IGUIG, CAGAYAN - The residents of barangay Santa Barbara in Iguig town, province of Cagayan are the recipients of another major project, a Potable Water System (Level II) with a project cost of Php3,709,000.00 funded under the Department of Agrarian Reform –Infrastructure Support Project (DAR-ARISP).  

The completed Santa Barbara Potable Water System consists of an elevated steel tank with a capacity of 22 cu.m., 1.845 linear meters distribution lines and 150 linear meters depth (deep well), 7.5 horsepower submersible pump. It will serve around 1,458 people consisting of 216 households.

The project was turned-over last December 10, 2013 by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) represented by Atty. Marjorie P. Ayson in favor of the Local Government Unit of Iguig (LGU-Iguig) represented by Mayor Juditas L. Trinidad.

Potable water (or drinking water) is water that is safe enough to be consumed by humans or used with low risk of immediate or long term harm. Previously, most of the residents of the Santa Barbara Agrarian Reform Community (Santa Barbara ARC) have inadequate access to potable water and are constrained to use sources of water that are often contaminated with disease-carrying organisms or have unacceptable levels of toxins which often cause acute and chronic illnesses and misery due to additional burden and additional expenses for medical services and medicines.

In the developing world such as the Philippines, deaths occur from diarrhea in children under 5 years old. This is aggravated by malnutrition which can decrease the children's resistance to infections, including water-related diarrheal diseases.The United Nations estimates that 6 to 8 million people worldwide die each year from water-related diseases

The provision of the Level PWS project is aimed at reducing water-borne diseases in the community, in addition to providing water for backyard livelihood opportunities such as vegetable production and other similar activities. /christiandsales

DAR, CSU and LGUs to prime up Cagayan agribiz through ARC clusters

TUGUEGARAO CITY. The Department of Agrarian Reform Provincial Office of Cagayan-Batanes (DARPO Cagayan-Batanes), in a meeting with the Cagayan State University, Tuguegarao campus, together with officials from the local government units of Tuguegarao, Iguig, Penablanca, Piat, Amulung, Solana, Tuao and Enrile held on November 15, 2013 disclosed a plan to create agrarian reform community clusters and that they have agreed and actually started to develop an integrated agribusiness plan to serve as a matrix of the rural enterprises to be undertaken in the ARC cluster.

An ARC cluster is composed of two or more agrarian reform communities (ARCs) who have banded together to share resources, to work together to attain economies of scale and to expand their business operations that will include other municipalities.

The ARC Cluster shall be promoted as the convergence point of all government program implemented by government agencies such that each program and project is complimentary and supportive to each other. The strategy shall adopt a more comprehensive and integrated approach to rural development through collaborative efforts by all stake holders and partners. The bottom line objective is to improve productivity and income of the farmers by focusing agribusiness development of agro-industrial crops and to create economies of scale and active, harmonious and peaceful communities. Another aim of this strategy is to widen the impact area that the ARC Program has started. It is intended to concretely operationalize partnership and convergence of development interventions in the rural areas not only in ARCs but to include the Non-ARC communities. 

The Program  shall adopt a more comprehensive approach which is multi-disciplinary in character, and would try to integrate the spatial and physical development with the economic, social and institutional aspects for a given geographic area.

The Cagayan South ARC Cluster will take the lead in the implementation of the plan. The Cagayan South ARC Cluster is composed of agrarian reform communities in Tuguegarao City and in the municipalities of Piat, Amulung (West), Solana, Tuao and Enrile. The cluster has been created under the industry-based category and will be a major player in the grains and sugarcane industry.

The World Bank shall compliment DAR’s efforts in priming up the agribusinesses of the ARC cluster through funding from the World Bank-GROWTH project. The parties have committed to work together to prepare and eventually submit an integrated agribusiness plan for the Cluster ARC.

The Cagayan State University (CSU) through its College of Business, Entrepreneurship and Accountancy shall undertake to equip the members and officers of the key agrarian reform beneficiaries’ organizations (ARBOs) with skills and capabilities to manage and operate the various agribusiness enterprises of their organizations. Photos by: Aldwin Addun

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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Eastern Iguig ARC Water Supply System Completed

The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) has completed the construction and is ready to turn-over a Potable  Water Supply System (Level II) project at barangay Sta. Barbara, a component barangay of Eastern Iguig Agrarian Reform Community (Eastern Iguig ARC) in Iguig, Cagayan.

The Eastern Iguig ARC  Potable Water Supply project was funded by the Agrarian Reform Infrastructure Project III (ARISP-III)-Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and the Local Government Unit (LGU) of Iguig, Cagayan with a total project cost of P3,707,530.73 and is expected to benefit some 647 agrarian reform beneficiary households.

The potable water system in the ARC will significantly decrease the incidence of water-borne diseases among school children. It will also provide water for vegetable gardening activities and opportunities for rural enterprises among farming households in the area resulting to increase in income. cds/mtb

Php15M Farm-to-Market Road Completed in Iguig, Cagayan

The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) is scheduled to turn-over sometime in July 2012 in favor of the Local Government Unit (LGU) of Iguig in Cagayan province a 4.536-kilometer Farm-to-Market Road (FMR) traversing 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.

Farm-to-Market Roads are some of the support services being implemented under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) which traditionally serves to connect rural or agricultural areas to market towns. In this case, from Eastern Iguig ARC to Tuguegarao City, where the major markets and distribution centers are located.

The concrete farm-to-market road will provide the agrarian farmer-beneficiaries, the members of their households  and the community in general with an all-weather barangay road and will also significantly help reduce the farmers’ costs of transporting their goods as well as their travel time to the market and trading centers, also, it will substantially increase their income due to savings from transport costs, lesser damage/spoilage to their goods, etc.

There are approximately 1,083 households who will benefit from the project at a cost of P15,498,684.90 funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)-Agrarian Reform Infrastructure Project-III (ARISP-III), Local Government Unit of Iguig (LGU-Iguig) and the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).

The completion of the concrete farm-to-market road will not only improve the living conditions of the people in Eastern Iguig ARC and its neighboring barangays/villages but it will also open more opportunities for economic development of the area. cds/mtb