Community pantry via vegetable, Peking duck farms in NegOcc

MINERVA BC NEWMAN

CEBU CITY – The volunteers of Kasambayanihan program of the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) in the coastal town of Valladolid, Negros Occidental have been quietly tending to their communal vegetable gardens and Peking duck farms to assist and provide impoverished communities and families in the area with livelihood and food security.

One of these hardworking residents and a NAPC volunteer is Ernesto Araneta, coordinator of the Communal Vegetable Farm Project in Barangay Paloma created under the Poverty Reduction through Rural Development (PRRD) program of NAPC and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR).

As a Ka-Sambayanan volunteer Ernesto leads the community in planting various vegetables such as lettuce, pechay, string beans, and alugbati from seeds provided by the Commission in partnership with the Department of Agriculture (DA) which are grown organically.

“Malaking tulong sa amin ang pagkakaroon ng communal garden.  Nakakapag harvest kami ng dalawang beses sa isang linggo.  Pinamahagi namin ito sa mga kasamahan namin sa Ka-sambayanihan para magkaroon sila ng kabuhayan,” Ernesto said.

Aside from harvesting for their personal consumption, the team can earn as much as P3,000 a week from the sale of their produce.

NAPC municipal focal person David Rigonel is also helping Barangay Bayabas but this time, through Peking duck production.

NAPC provided the barangay with an initial 100 Peking ducks which the team is raising.  The target is to provide each family beneficiary with at least 15 ducks to take care of in their own backyard for continuous production.

“Itong Peking duck ay nakita natin na hindi lamang itlog ang mapapakinabangan pati na rin ang karne. Simple itong alagaan.  Pabayaan lang silang umikot-ikot sa bakuran ng bawat benepisyaryo at bigyan ng tirang pagkain.  Siguradong mangingitlog na kaya walang masyadong gastos.  Pwede ring ipagbili ang karne dahil mahal ito,” David said.

NAPC Secretary and Lead Convenor Atty. Noel Felongco is pleased to see these community efforts taking off and it inspired NAPC to work harder to bring down the country’s poverty incidence, enhance food security and strengthen rural-urban agro-economic value chains.

Felongco said that NAPC and the Valladolid local government unit signed a memorandum of agreement for the implementation of a P3-million poverty alleviation project in the municipality.

The budget for the Integrated Community-Based Agricultural Production and Processing Facility includes P2 million for the construction of physical infrastructures and procurement of equipment, P500,000 for hauling support and provision for vehicles, and PHP500,000 for capital infusion relative to the conduct of livelihood projects, Felongco bared.

Valladolid is one of the seven priority areas for the implementation of the PRRD prototype projects that included Majayjay, Laguna; Kayapa, Nueva Vizcaya; Cebu City; Calbayog City, Samar; Talipao, Sulu; and Kauswagan, Lanao del Norte.

Felongco added that NAPC has developed the Sambayanihan: Serbisyong Sambayanan, a five-year development framework from 2019-2023 to offer opportunities for people to lift themselves out of poverty and achieve a better life.

The framework provides guidance in carrying out a climate-responsive, culture- and gender-sensitive, and convergent and participatory anti-poverty strategy in response to the administration’s goal of bringing down the country’s poverty incidence from 21.6 percent in 2015 to 14 percent by 2022, Felongco said. (Photos: NAPC/Google Images)