To advocate and persevere the revitalization and conservation of the heirloom rice in Benguet, the province receives and gives from and to the Department of Agriculture-Cordillera Heirloom Rice Project.
Following the conduct of the information caravan in order to acquire the consent of the Free and Prior Informed Consent (FPIC) for the project in Bakun and Kapangan, the communities represented by farmers and elders/leaders signed the MOA and Certificate of FPIC approving the conduct of research constituting the analysis of heirloom rice variety existing in the said communities including the sample collection of seeds for gene banking.
Furthermore, interventions worth 8,298,800.00 was turned over to the heirloom rice farmers of Kibungan.
The interventions include spring development projects, mini-warehouse, heirloom rice processing center, heirloom rice terraces restoration, solar bubble dryer, moisture meters, HDPE hoses and knapsack sprayers.
Dr. Magdalena T. Wanawan, one of the project leaders, emphasized that the interventions are meant to augment the farmers’ indentified problems exisiting in the community. With the delimiting number of items given to specific individuals , Dr. Wanawan hopes that the beneficiaries will share the interventions to other farmers.
The department enters the Phase II of the project which will also focus on the newly identified expansion areas within Benguet, Kalinga, Ifugao and Mt. Province.
By Jenny M. Dayao