Limasawa farmers flooded with livelihood assistance from DAR

LIMASAWA, Southern Leyte – Flood may just be an ordinary thing to residents in this island municipality being frequently hit by typhoons. But how about if government support assistance overflow following a heavy rain that poured overnight?

Members of an agrarian reform beneficiaries organization (ARBO) here were surprised on Friday, May 29 this year, to receive garden tools and a variety of seeds from the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).

Though it took him approximately an hour to cross the sea from the mainland on board a pump boat, DAR Assistant Secretary for Finance Management and Administration Office (FMAO), Atty. Quintin Magsico Jr., returned here, bringing along a power tiller machine, various garden tools and a variety of vegetable seeds, amounting to P119,575.00 sourced from the Climate Resilient Farm Productivity Support (CRFPS) fund, for the vegetable production of the Islander Multi-Purpose Cooperative (IMPC).

Magsico explained that “Today’s turnover of these garden tools is the realization of my promise to Mayor (Melchor Petracorta) last year.”

But since Petracorta was out of town on that moment, councilor Arben Dagohoy represented him during the said occasion and expressed gratitude to DAR in behalf of the people of this island municipality for giving them “priority assistance projects” to enable them become self-sufficient in terms of food productivity.

Eleve Curada, chairman of the IMPC, shared that they were surprised and happy to receive the garden tools and seeds. “We have no idea, but these tools are of big help to us. Only few here have garden tools because they are expensive,” said Curada.

Aside from the farm inputs and farm implements that were turned over to the IMPC, the DAR launched here on the same occasion the Sustainable Livelihood Support for Disaster-Affected Areas (SLSDAA), where IMPC will again be a recipient of an egg layering project amounting to more than P300,000.00, which is also funded under CRFPS.

With this project, residents here can buy eggs at a lower cost, Curada said. He added that prices of commodities here are quite high for being sourced from the mainland.

DAR Eastern Visayas Regional Director, Atty. Robert Anthony Yu, shared that Agrarian Reform Secretary Conrado Estrella III instructed him to make sure that even farmers living in islands receive the same government assistance and projects based on the orders from President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. “That no one will be left behind,” Yu stressed.

He further explained that these projects will help farmers here adapt to the unpredictable weather condition especially that this province is frequently hit by typhoons.

Meanwhile, Southern Leyte Provincial Agrarian Reform Program Officer II (PARPO II), Cecil Malubay, assured the farmers that this will not be the last but just a beginning of their journey towards progress.