True to his promise, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel “Manny” Piñol, visited the province of Kalinga on May 10, 2017.
One of the projects that Sec. Piñol prioritized during his visit was the conversion of marijuana plantations to coffee farms. Several provisions were given to push this project.
The Production Loan Easy Access (PLEA), the brainchild of Sec. Piñol, is a program for Filipino farmers wherein they’d be able to avail of a loan to finance their farms. Together with this is a national identification card system for farmers called the “Juan Magsasaka National Farmers Registration Monitoring ID.” By simply showing the ID, the farmer can already take advantage of PLEA.
The pilot program will be rolled out this year and Kalinga is the second province chosen to have this implemented.
A household can loan a maximum amount of twenty-thousand pesos per hectare (Php 20,000/ha) of land for coffee farming which is payable in six years, double the time of coffee maturity. This is to encourage people to transition from marijuana farming.
Tinglayan is the priority municipality, specifically the barangay of Loccong. A total of 10,000 Arabica coffee seedlings was awarded to the Loccong Gardeners Association to start with.
In line with this, Sec. Piñol will also be giving native pigs to the region as an additional livelihood while waiting for seedlings to grow. In exchange, trichanthera must be planted in the province. The plant is a good substitute for commercial feeds and less costly.
In addition, Mayor Sacrament Gumilab of Tinglayan asked for support during the dialogue with the DA secretary that same day. A Tulgao-Loccong-Buscalan farm to market road (FMR) worth ninety million pesos (Php 90M) was requested. This leads to more than 85 hectares of marijuana plantation.
Sec. Piñol approved this and Governor Jocel Baac will be giving 10%, which is equal to nine-hundred thousand pesos (Php 900,000).
All the municipality has to do is to assure the road right of way and that it will also lead the production area to the market.
The proposal for the opening/gravelling of the Loccong FMR was also given a budget. Php 1.5M will be coming from Sec. Piñol and another Php 1.5M from Gov. Baac, totaling Php3M. The Loccong FMR also leads to a marijuana plantation.
Sec. Piñol hopes that marijuana farmers in Kalinga will forget their old ways and switch to a more viable and sustainable farming like coffee. **Ayra Galanza
