ILOILO City – In support of the relief efforts of the national government against coronavirus disease 2019, the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) has purchased 4,000 bags of 50-kilogram (kg.) well-milled rice valued at around P5 million from farmers in Panay Island.
“They bought here in Iloilo because they also patronize their projects,” Department of Agriculture (DA) in Region 6 executive director Remelyn Recoter said Thursday.
The KOICA funded the Panay Island Upland Sustainable Rural Development project which has 10 Bayanihan Tipon Centers (BTCs) in strategic places in the island and a Local Food Terminal (LFT) in San Miguel, Iloilo. It also funded the Iloilo Rice Processing Complex in Pototan town.
The rice stocks were acquired from the BTCs in Tapaz and Jamindan, Capiz; Lambunao and San Miguel in Iloilo; and Patnongon in Antique, as well as from the rice-processing complex.
The bags of rice KOICA purchased are currently stocked at the LFT, which serves as the consolidating center.
The rice supplies will be repacked into 6-kg. bags and shipped to Manila as KOICA’s donation to the Department of Social Welfare and Development National Resource Operations Center.
Recoter said the LFT is just waiting for the materials – ordered from Cebu – that would be used for the repacking.
She expressed hope that there would be more purchases, although she said the KOICA also extended assistance to other areas where they have projects, such as in Mindanao.
“The identified municipalities are more than self-sufficient. With this, at least they have (an) additional market,” Recoter said.
The DA-6’s record showed that Patnongon is 247-percent rice sufficient; Jamindan, 257 percent; Tapaz, 93 percent; Lambunao, 169 percent; Pototan, 334 percent; and San Miguel, 207 percent.(With a report from PNA/PN)
