PGMA urges farmers to become agri-entrepreneurs

BAGO CITY, Oct. 17 (PNA) – President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo intensified today government’s campaign against extreme poverty by urging all farmers in the province of Negros Occidental to become agri-entrepreneurs.

The President made her impromptu remarks during the Department of Agriculture (DA) and National Irrigation Administration (NIA) Farmers Forum, which had as its theme: “Sa Ugnayan, Kaunlaran Makakamtan.”

“How do you fight extreme poverty? We must raise the income of our farmers and make them agri-businessmen,” the President said.

Before the program started at Barangay Bagroy here, the President demonstrated the proper way of seed sowing “Dapog” to signal the launching of the sustainable system of irrigated agriculture (SSIA) and inaugurate Bago River Irrigation System (BRIS).

She then unveiled the marker of the newly-constructed Post Harvest Facilities and Irrigators Office as one of the institutional development components of the Bago River Irrigation System Rehabilitation Improvement Project (BRISRIP).

BRISRIP is a priority agricultural program of the President aimed at increasing the production of farmer-beneficiaries, reducing production cost, and increasing farmers’ awareness of organic farming.

The government implemented FIELDS (Fertilizer, Irrigation, Extension work of sustainable agriculture, Loans, Dryers and Seeds), aimed especially at farmers residing in the far-flung areas, since 2001.

At least three cities and four municipalities directly benefit from the BRISRIP. These are the cities of Bacolod, Bago and La Carlota and the municipalites of Murcia, Pulupandan, San Enrique, and Valladolid.

Negros Occidental Governor Isidro Zayco and 4th District Representative Jeffrey Ferrer, Bago City Mayor Ramon Torres, NIA Administrator Carlos Salazar, Bago City Vice Mayor Nicolas Yulo, and Federation of Irrigators’ Association of Central Negros-Bago River Irrigation System president Domingo Mayang witnessed the ceremonial seedbed “Dapog”.