Antique agro-enterprise cluster gets P460M in projects, grants
The Central Antique Local Convergence Agro-enterprise Cluster launched last month in Barbaza town is receiving P460 million worth of funding and material support coming from the three rural development agencies of the government.
About P160 million in support will come from the Department of Agriculture, Department of Agrarian Reform and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
According to a DA report, the German Agency for Technical Cooperation announced support through a forest and climate protection project to the cluster in the amount of P300 million.
The agro-enterprise cluster in Central Antique covers the municipalities of Barbaza, Laua-an, Bugasong, Valderrama and Patnongon and seen to benefit 33,835 farm households and develop 32,288 hectares.
The DA said there is an indicative requirement of P 1.1 billion pesos in public and private sector investments over the next three years. The investments aim to develop the complete value chain on the priority crops identified, including rice, abaca, banana, peanut and muscovado.
Food and Agriculture Organization defines agro-based cluster as the “concentration of producers, agribusinesses and institutions that are engaged in the same agricultural or agro-industrial subsector, and interconnect and build value networks when addressing common challenges and pursuing common opportunities.”
The idea of agro-enterprise cluster features the completeness of ecosystem zones and landscapes, combination of high productivity zones in between areas and agropolitan centers, combination of crops across major crops and combination of sites across poverty groups.
Also, clustering should include potentials for high impact in increasing farm productivity and income of the rural poor. The presence of development-oriented local government leaders, non-government organizations, people’s organizations, academe and research community should also be considered.
With these as the consideration in this latest thrust of the DA-DAR-DENR National Convergence Initiative, the replication of agro-enterprise clusters in all provinces, whenever applicable, is the latest effort that the Convergence is pursuing in order to promote sustainable rural development in the Philippines.
DENR is funding a number of projects in central Antique amounting to P41.26 million. These consist of upland development and rehabilitation projects benefiting over 220 residents of Bugasong. DENR is also supporting the development of a 70-hectare abaca and a 50-hectare rattan plantation in the towns of Barbaza and Patnongon, respectively.
The approved Forest Land Use Plan will also be handed over to the municipality of Laua-an. With the Handog Titulo Program of the DENR, land titles were issued to 27 individuals from Barbaza and another 51 from Patnongon. One hundred fruit trees and 900 forest trees were also turned over to the municipality of Barbaza.
The DAR, meanwhile, launched the Agrarian Reform Infrastructure Support Project III for the municipalities of Laua-an and Valderrama. This involves the combination of infrastructure, institutional development, agricultural and enterprise development support amounting to P99.21 million.
For its part, DA extended its material support to central Antique by turning over a tramline in Brgy. Igburi, Patnongon that will help transport agri-products and inputs of some 1,000 farmers. DA provided the provincial government of Antique a transplanter that could transplant a maximum of two hectares per day using only five liters of gasoline.
Drum seeder, power sprayer, shredder machines, upland rice and vegetable seeds were also distributed to the five municipalities. DA through the Fiber Industry Development Authority together with the local government of Barbaza will also establish a high density abaca nursery. This will be used as the source of planting materials needed for the expansion and rehabilitation of abaca areas in Barbaza. Valderrama town also received flatbed dryers and the construction of farm-to-market roads.
The contributions of the three rural development agencies were formalized through a Memorandunm of Understanding between DA Secretary Proceso Alcala, DAR Secretary Virgilio delos Reyes and DENR Secretary Ramon Paje, with Antique Gov. Exequiel Javier.*
