3,000 farmers registered in Baguio

The City Veterinary and Agriculture Office (CVAO) reported that there are more than three thousand farmers in the city’s different barangays that already registered under the agriculture department’s registry system for basic sectors in agriculture (RSBA) CVAO senior agriculturist Marcelina Tabelin claimed that the number of registered farmers from the different parts of the city is expected to continuously increase in the coming months because of the walk ins that the office is catering daily for various transactions.

She claimed that the agriculture department is trying to ensure that individuals involved in agriculture should be registered with the said system so that the government will be able to come out with a database on those who are directly involved in agriculture and for the registered stakeholders to be able to easily avail of whatever available assistance from the agency.

The city’s senior agriculturist disclosed that in a survey conducted by the newly created agriculture section of the CVO IN 2019, there were more than 1,500 farmers that had been engaged in agriculture in the different parts of the city.

However, she stipulated that since the agriculture department started to implement the RSBA in 2020, the number of registered farmers started to drastically increase over the past 2 years which is an indication of the bright prospects for agriculture in an urban setting like in the city where there are limited lands to be tilled by farmers.

According to her, there are still numerous individuals who are actively involved in agriculture around the city who are not yet registered with the RSBA. That is why efforts are being made by the concerned government agency and the local government for them to register because of the numerous benefits attached to being part of the RSBA.

She admitted that the number of registered farmers in the city might not reach over 5,000 as projected by the results of the census previously conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

As per verification and validation from the PSA, Tabelin revealed that there were some factors that were included in the census questionnaire which will not qualify an individual to be a farmer or involved in agriculture such as the question on their ownership of dogs.

She added that even in terms of availing of loans offered by the agriculture department and whatever transactions that will be done with concerned government agencies, the registration of farmers to the RSBA is one of the primordial requirements before they will be individually or collectively given attention for their requests.

The agriculturist said that the local government remains steadfast in informing and educating the concerned agriculture industry stakeholders on the various programs, projects and activities which they will be able to avail to further improve their production and marketing of their agricultural crops for them to be able to command higher buying prices for their produce that will translate to better opportunities to earn bigger income from agriculture.

The agriculture division of the CVAO was created purposely to cater to the needs of the growing agriculture sector in the city. – Dexter A. See