LAOAG CITY, Ilocos Norte -- Presidential son Ilocos Norte First District Representative Ferdinand Alexander "Sandro" Marcos leads the distribution of agricultural machinery, equipment and other farming interventions worth P26.4 million to farmers on Wednesday, Oct. 5.

The distribution was held at Ilocos Norte Agriculture and Fisheries Extension Center (INAFEC) in Laoag City, Ilocos Norte.

The activity, a continuing project of the Department of Agriculture, is aimed at modernizing the production and post production of the farmers by affording them modern farm machinery and equipment.

Eight municipalities and one city from the first district of the province received various farm implements such as tractors, compact rice mill, plastic drums, seeds and fertilizers, power pumps and garden tools among others which were given to various farmer-association beneficiaries per municipality.

Marcos reiterated his office's full support to the agriculture sector by assuring the prioritization of funding support for agricultural farm machinery, post-harvest facilities and other forms of interventions.

By providing these farming tools, the farmers would be able to sustain their efforts of not only modernizing agriculture but more importantly increasing productivity and income.

Part of the distributed assistance are Hybrid seeds worth P21.2 million for the municipalities under the 1st district of the province.

Ilocos Norte continued to exhibit a high rate of hybrid rice utilization throughout the region with 72% utilization rate as of 2021.

Also present during the distribution was DA's Undersecretary for Special Concerns Engr. Zamzamin Ampatuan who noted the essence of farm clustering and consolidation and enterprise system as crucial strategies that must be seriously considered in DA's program implementation.

He said that there is a need to restructure the agricultural production system to transform agriculture as a truly profitable business enterprise for farmers.

Advocating for organic agriculture, Zamzamin also shared information about a proposed project initially called ‘Buklod Bayan para sa Masaganang Ani project.’

‘Buklod Bayan’ is a proposed project of the Organic Agriculture Program which aims to plant 25 hectares of organic rice with Ilocos Norte as the pilot area which will adopt the technologies and enterprise systems used by the Mindanao organic rice farmers.

These organic rice farmers from Mindanao had achieved high production yield in organic rice with low production cost.

In tandem with the National Organic Agriculture Board (NOAB) member, Director Renato dela Cruz, Usec. Ampatuan expressed high hopes that the project shall encourage further production of organic rice in the region and achieve a more affordable rice supply for consumers.

Dr. Annie Bares, DA- Regional Executive Director expressed optimism that with the continuing distribution of farm implements in the four provinces of the region, this would result in a more secured food production in the regions in the country.