SAN JOSE, Antique – The Office of the Provincial Agriculture (OPA) in Antique has reiterated that farmers in this province should be allowed to work on their farms amid the enhanced community quarantine due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
OPA chief Nicolasito Calawag said during a meeting with the Antique Inter-Agency Task Force on COVID-19 that farmers should be allowed to continue to operate in order to not affect the food production in this province.
Calawag reported that some farmers complained that they are facing difficulties going to their lands. Agriculture dealers and haulers also find it hard transporting their products because of the checkpoints.
“As long as farmers also observe the proper social distancing and are found to have no fever at the checkpoints, please also allow them to go to work,” he said.
“They need to go to their farms so they could do their regular farm activities to produce palay. Antique is just grateful that its palay sufficient,” Calawag added.
Under Memorandum Circular Number 09 issued by the Department of Agriculture (DA), farming and fishing activities like land preparation, planting, crop maintenance, harvesting, threshing, drying, packaging, and trading shall continue.
According to Calawag, the order of the DA is to ensure that movement of all cargoes, agricultural and fishery inputs, food products, and agri-business personnel nationwide will not be hampered.
The OPA chief added that palay production in Antique has reached 37,517 metric tons or 440,000 sacks last March.(With a report from PNA/PN)
