CamSur farmers get P300K kits for organic veggie production

By Connie Calipay

The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) in Camarines Sur provided P300,000 worth of starter kits to a farmer’s group to help its members establish sustainable organic vegetable production.

Felipe Vargas, DAR agrarian reform program officer, said the Burabod Farmers Agrarian Reform Organization (BFARO) in Calabanga town received assistance under the DAR’s Enhanced Partnership Against Hunger and Poverty (EPaHP) program.

The program aims to sustainably reduce poverty and hunger nationwide by 2030.

The starter bundles, Vargas said, include assorted vegetable seeds, garden tools and implements, production inputs, free-range chickens, and labor to install a water pump. These kits will also help the organization improve the community garden it will set up.

“Communal production areas will be at least 500 square meters in size, but training graduates with home lots will be obliged to use their land for veggie planting,” he said in a statement.

Recently, 29 agrarian reform beneficiaries’ organization (ARBO) members also attended a four-day technology transfer training on organic vegetable production focused on good agricultural practices.

Renato Bequillo, OIC-Provincial Agrarian Reform Program Officer, said the training will help the farmers refine their skills in new techniques through technology transfer programs.

“This will not only help them counter the potential impacts of climate change on their crops but also adopt farming methods they have never previously tried and ensure crop resilience to produce healthy organic vegetables,” Bequillo said.

He said after the ARBs graduate from their training, they must be able to use what they have learned to establish their community garden.

The organization, which has 50 farmer-members, was formed in 2021. They grow and sell high-value crops like eggplant, squash, ladyfinger (okra), bottle gourd (upo), string beans, papaya, banana (saba), and pineapple in their backyards.

DAR also provided members of the Sto. Niño Vegetable Growers Association with the same training and startup kit.