BACOLOD CITY – The Sugar Regulatory Administration is fast tracking the distribution of support systems to agrarian reform beneficiaries and sugar farmers which has not been given by the previous administration of SRA.
SRA Board Member David Andrew Sanson, who represents planter’s group, recently said that they will ensure that all the backlog farm support equipment will be distributed to targeted ARBs.
“Our target is zero back log” declared Sanson, who was accompanied by SRA executive assistant Juan Andres Corro in turning over farm equipment on Friday to the 1,000-strong PROFABA Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Cooperative in Barangay Payao, Binalbagan, which was held at the SRA – La Granja Agricultural Research and Extension Center compound in La Carlota City.
More farm equipment is set to be turned over by SRA to various ARB cooperatives in March, Sanson also announced.
The assistance is funded under the Sugar Industry Development Act allocation in the General Appropriations Act.
SIDA aims to revitalize the Philippine sugar industry by enhancing productivity, farmworker income, and overall industry competitiveness.
Sanson also reiterated SRA’s goal of improving productivity and putting into good use the equipment turned over to the beneficiaries
Last year, the SRA handed over P101 million worth of farm support equipment to identified Mill District Development Councils (MDDC) and block farms in the Visayas, through the Sugar Industry Development Act fund (SIDA).
PROFABA president Roseny Villanueva, a former barangay kagawad of Payao in Binalbagan, thanked the SRA for granting their request for additional farm equipment.
The 5th district United Bloc Farm, ARBs and Small Planters Organization (5d TUBO), is a federation of all ARB cooperatives in the district, which includes PROFABA, is affiliated with the National Congress of Unions in the Sugar Industry of the Philippines (NACUSIP) – Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Council.
NACUSIP earlier demanded the immediate resignation and removal of the entire Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) board, including Administrator Paul Azcona, Sanson and Millers’ representative Ma. Mitzi Mangwag, whose stint is allegedly marked by record-low farm gate prices, disastrous importation policies, secrecy and absence of transparency in crafting sugar orders, and a blatant disregard for small planters and agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs). (Gilbert Bayoran via tvds)