Negros Occidental will be the pilot area for rural Bigas Ng Masa program – DA Secretary Manny Piñol
Department of Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel “Manny” Piñol officially announced on his official Facebook Page the news that the province of Negros Occidental will be the pilot area for the ‘Bigas ng Masa’ project of the government.
It is a part of the DA TienDA advocacy of the present administration. This aims to connect farmers directly to the cosumers.
The DA Secretary recently visited the said province and he specifically went to Bago City where the Rice Processing Complex (RPC) was located.
According to Piñol, through the proposed tri-partite agreement between the Department of Agriculture, the Provincial Government of Negros Occidental and a Farmers’ Cooperative, the province could be the first venue of ‘Bigas ng Masa’ Program implementation.
He also related that he discussed the matters to Provincial Agriculturist Japhet Masculino concerning the plan of the department to maximize the RPC by turning it over to a farmers’ cooperative.
“In the proposal I gave to the provincial government through Atty. Masculino, the operation of the RPC be turned over to a farmers cooperative which will be given a P20-M loan by the DA Agricultural Credit Policy Council so they could provide their members production loans under the Production Loan Easy Access Program,” Piñol stated.
Rice milled in Bago City RPC will be sold in ‘Bigas Ng Masa’ outlets in all towns and other population centers in the said province which will be put up by the Negros Occidental provincial government.
The head of the DA even said that through this project, the price of the rice will just cost 40 pesos per kilo.
“Atty. Masculino said he will draft the Memorandum of Agreement which he will submit to Negros Occidental Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr. who in turn is expected to refer it to the Sangguniang Panlalawigan for approval,” the DA Secretary announced.
It is expected that through ‘Bigas ng Masa’, the income of the farmers will increase while the basic commodities will be cheaper.
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