The National Irrigation Administration (NIA) Region 7 takes action on NIA Acting Administrator Engr. Eddie G. Guillen’s move for consolidated farming which pools the resources of various agencies to support the needs of farmers.
NIA R7 Regional Manager Engr. Reyne B. Ugay met with Mayor Democrito Diamante of Tuburan, Cebu recently, and with Mayor Jess Baja of Garcia Hernandez, Bohol, to discuss the creation of farmer cooperatives per municipality.
The Municipality of Tuburan in Cebu and the Municipality of Garcia Hernandez will be the pioneer adopters of Guillen’s consolidated farming in Central Visayas.
It can be noted that NIA Admin Guillen solicited the support of government officials in the recent Bohol Stakeholders Forum on January 27 and the Cebu Irrigators’ Associations (IA) Congress in November last year.
RM Ugay explained that many municipalities showed interest to replicate, however, Garcia Hernandez and Tuburan were the ones who were very eager and volunteered to pioneer in their respective provinces.
“We chose one municipality per province, for now, to pilot the consolidated farming concept. These municipalities volunteered to adopt the call of NIA Admin Guillen to form IA cooperatives so when others see it’s a success, more municipalities will be enticed to replicate it.” Ugay added.
The NIA Central Office Institutional Development Division and NIA R7 key personnel discussed with the municipal mayors the plans moving forward.
NIA’s Irrigation Development Officers (IDO) are set to orient the 9 IAs in Garcia Hernandez this month. The same schedule is also set for the Municipality of Tuburan.
Tuburan Mayor Diamante also proposed to build a Bagsakan Center and an IA Office for their farmers where they can do their trading.
NIA targets to conduct another orientation with the Cooperative Development Authority in April this year.