Caloocan LGU, DAR sign deal for urban farming venues philippinetimes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from philippinetimes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
DAR Secretary John Castriciones
(DAR / MANILA BULLETIN)
DAR Undersecretary for Support Services Emily Padilla said she had observed in past distribution of relief goods and farm inputs that “some recipients are not actually farmer-beneficiaries.”
The said reports prompted Castriciones to establish the “Kumustasaka at ARBisitahan” program last January 17 to determine the true state of the country’s land reform program after 48 years of its implementation.
The new program seeks to find out who the existing owners of land reform-covered farmlots, the crops planted on them, and the kinds of support services that are needed to enhance farm productivity.
Padilla explained that the Kumustasaka and ARBisitahan program aims to pinpoint the actual farmer-beneficiaries and ensure that all assistance being provided by the DAR would not fall on wrong hands.
(KEITH BACONGCO/ MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO)
Almost a hundred farmers from Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Quezon, and Rizal went to Manila to hold a dialogue with the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and seek resolution to long-standing land disputes covering thousands of hectares of productive agricultural lands which they charged as having been taken over by individuals, companies and government corporation.
The farmers started their protest action by marching from the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) to the DAR office in Quezon City. They also went to the Department of Agriculture (DA), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), and Camp Crame.
(MANILA BULLETIN)
Castriciones made the announcement during the distribution of individual Certificates of Land Ownership Award or CLOA, covering 111.29 hectares of farmland, to 88 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) in Barangay Baretbet, Bagabag, Nueva Vizcaya last January 18.
“This is our way of expressing our gratitude to our retirees for the services they rendered and for sharing their expertise to the Department,” Castriciones said.
He explained that the move is intended to preserve the agricultural lands for the country’s food security program as “it gives our soon-to-be retiring DAR officials and staff new avenues to practice their know-how for food production.”
He added that the initiative is based on the presumption that “he who takes agricultural courses will embrace farming with all their heart.”
Published January 2, 2021, 4:24 PM
An urban vegetable garden established inside the St. John Don Bosco Parish compound in Tondo, Manila will be opened to the public for the first time Sunday, Jan. 3.
Under the “Buhay sa Gulay” (Life in Vegetables) project of the Department of Agrarian Reform’s (DAR), Secretary John Castriciones is inviting the public to join the “pick, harvest, and pay” activity in which customers will be allowed to go around the farm, pick grown vegetables themselves, and pay for their harvests.
Residents of Tondo have planted squash, upo, kangkong, spinach, mustard, and pechay in the vegetable garden.
Castriciones said an 8,000-square meter vacant football field was converted into an urban vegetable garden to plant varieties of vegetables to benefit families and residents of 17 barangays around the parish for the Buhay sa Gulay project that is being implemented by the DAR in partnership with the Don Bosco Parish, Department of Agriculture, and the