The
Korea Project on International Agriculture
(KOPIA) through the Rural Development Administration is helping farmers earn
millions by partnering with farmers’ cooperatives.
“This is our way of helping
the cooperatives and its members become millionaires,” Dr. Norvie Manigbas,
project leader said.
The Sinibaan Farmers
Association in Dingle, Iloilo and the Bohol Farmers Multipurpose Cooperative in
Pilar, Bohol received registered seeds (RS) during the town’s recent Farmers’
Field Day.
“After farmer-recipients
planted the seeds and harvested, they are expected to return the same amount of
seeds to their respective cooperatives in the form of money,” Dr. Manigbas
said.
In Iloilo, farmers are
expected to produce 300 sacks (48kg/sack) of high quality seeds. From this start up, Manigbas said that the
cooperative will have at least P 1.5M at the end of the three-year KOPIA
project in the area.
“Assuming that a cavan is
equivalent to P1,000, the cooperative will receive P300,000 from the farmer
members after harvest. This is the seed money that will go to the cooperative
for their use,” Dr. Manigbas explained.
The distributed RS in Iloilo
came from a two-hectare field in Hamungaya, Jaro, Iloilo where foundation seeds
were grown, with the aid of the DA-Western Visayas Integrated Agricultural
Research Center (DA-WESVIARC).
In Bohol, a five-hectare
field in Ubay was used to produce seeds to farmer members of the cooperative in
partnership with the Bohol Provincial Agriculture Office and Office of the
Provincial Governor.
“The money may be loaned by
the cooperative’s farmer-members to buy their farm inputs. The cooperative can
purchase big machines for the farmers to use modern technologies,” Dr. Manigbas
added.
Aside from RS, the
cooperatives also received walk-type transplanters and soil analyzers.
Members of these cooperatives
are also trained to use new technologies on rice farming developed by PhilRice.
“We chose to partner with
established cooperatives because they are efficient in managing the
dissemination of seeds to their members and members have commitments and
responsibilities to their cooperative,” Dr. Manigbas said.
He further said that the
project works by partnering with established cooperatives through the New
Community Movement or Rural Transformation principles which are diligence,
self-help, and cooperation.
Meanwhile, Dr. Cho Yang-Hee,
KOPIA secretary-general, explained that the project will help support
PhilRice’s Rural Transformation Movement.
“We hope that this project
will bring rural transformation in the Philippines. I also hope that this
project will benchmark the new village movement of Korea as we call the Saemaul
Undong Movement. Korean government, especially the KOPIA, will be your strong
partner in developing and implementing joint projects on agricultural
technology.”
Dr. Jeong Taek Lee, KOPIA
Center director in the Philippines, said the project intends to help farmers in
the Philippines to achieve a better life in partnership with PhilRice.
KOPIA Center is stationed at
PhilRice Central Experiment Station in Nueva Ecija. (PhilRice)
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