Sunday, February 15, 2009

Increasing Food Supply in a Philippine Town

      Increasing local supply of food crops takes the top slot in this year's priority list of Talibon Mayor Juanario Item.

      For this purpose, a total of 75 barangay officials recently attended a one-day seminar-workshop on the production of Carbonized Rice Hull and Vermi-Composting held at the Farmers' Information & Technology Services (FITS) center in barangay San Roque.

      Among the participants were the 25 village heads, chairpersons of the barangay committees on agriculture and the barangay agricultural workers(BAW).

      In his message during the activity, Mayor Item said the activity helped make the participants and all land tillers appreciate the compost fertilizer more than inorganic ones.

      Item also pointed out that his administration's focus this year is on increasing the local supply of agricultural products like rice, banana, root crops and vegetables.

      Through the program, the municipal government aims to ensure the town's food security.

      "If all farmers will support his agenda to forget commercial fertilizers in favor of the organic ones, it will lessen the burden of crop production," according to the mayor.

      In fact, the mayor said he has already started applying compost fertilizers on his ricefields.

      Agricultural Technologist and FITS Manager Ponciana Cruda, for her part,  encouraged the farmers to try the CRH and vermin composting method of producing local fertilizers.

      Vermi-composting technician, Generoso Evardo, introduced the importance of vermi-culture and vermin composting.

      After the lecture, the participants had hands-on activities on the production of carbonized rice hull and preparation of a container for vermin-culture.

      Mayor Item personally distributed the certificates of attendance to the participants. (Onad Munalem) 

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