A Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) creating the Ilocos Norte Agriculture and Fishery Extension System (INAFES) was signed in an effort to sustain and elevate Ilocos Norte as a food secure and self-sufficient province.
INAFES, to be carried out by the Department of Agriculture (DA), and the Provincial Government of Ilocos Norte, is seen to strengthen and synergize provincial and municipal extension systems by engaging a pool of experts who will provide technical and business advisory services to farming and fishing communities.
Once instituted, INAFES will help establish and enhance rural livelihoods in the province through the development, adaptation, sharing and utilization of science-based knowledge and innovations with farming and fishing, families, rural communities and agriculture enterprises.
Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar and Ilocos Norte Governor Matthew Joseph Marcos Manotoc signed the MOA on February 28 in Laoag City.
Through the system and stronger collaboration between DA, the Local Government Units, and the private sector, extension service will be delivered to the grassroots level.
“Dapat tuloy-tuloy ang partnership para sa pag-unlad ng magsasaka at mangingisda,” Dar said stressing that INAFES is an important initiative.
According to Secretary Dar, INAFES is among the strategies of DA to nurture Ani and Kita, the agency’s current battle cry, which seeks to enable farmers and fishers to improve productivity and double their income.
Aside from cascading services to the rural communities, Dar added that the Department has established programs that aim to entice the younger generation of Filipinos to venture into farming and agri-business.
“We have set-up lending windows for the youth to capacitate them to establish agribusinesses,” he said.
Among the newly-launched programs are the Kapital Access for Young Agripreneurs (KAYA) and Agrinegosyo. Both programs provide access to loans, payable in five years at zero percent interest rate.
KAYA, with total funding of P1B, offers P300,000 to P500,000 to interested individuals ages 18-30 years old who wish to put up an enterprise in line with agriculture and fishery.
Agrinegosyo, on the other hand, offers cash loans amounting from P300,000 to P15million to individuals and institutions who are already engaged or are interested to establish micro and small agribusiness enterprises.
Banking on the “millennials”, the DA has expanded programs to motivate the youth to take an interest in agriculture.
While in Laoag City, Dar led the awarding of various agri-fishery interventions and assistance amounting to a total of P642.72 million (M). “
Today marks a historic event. Part of the award that we will be giving today is the P9.9M of the P99M cash assistance under the Rice Farmers Financial Assistance (RFFA) Program to benefit 19,927 farmers from Batac, Dingras, San Nicolas, Sarrat, Paoay, and Piddig,” Dar said.
RFFA provides each rice farmer tilling half to two hectares of farmland P5,000 in cash.
Another P163.97M under the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund Under assistance was awarded under the seeds, mechanization, extension and credit components. This is on top of the P379M provided by the Regional Field Unit and bureau and attached agencies of the Ilocos Region. ### (Adora Rodriguez, DA-AFID)
