DAR, East West Seed Philippines launch Harvest Festival in Boac

BOAC, Marinduque -- On Wednesday, the farmer-beneficiaries of Samahan ng Nagkakaisang Magsasaka ng Duyay gather at their demo farm for the Harvest Festival. Their eyes sporting hope and pride as their demo farm has improved a mile in less than two months. Healthy stalks of plants have sprouted and grew, flaunting their ripe vegetables, waiting to be picked. This Harvest Festival exhibits the development of their demo farm located at Barangay Duyay in Boac.

This community demo farm is an output of their Farm Business School (FBS) in 2021. FBS is a program initiated by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) that mainly focuses in capacitating their farmer-beneficiaries through honing their agricultural entrepreneurship skills to further boost their farm productivity.

Earlier this year, DAR-Marinduque has partnered with East West Seed Philippines, a privately-owned company and market leader for tropical vegetable seeds in Asia. They have sponsored high-quality seeds and farm inputs to further nurture the said demo farm. This is East West Seed Philippines’ first convergence with a government agency in Marinduque.

Melanie Cruz of East West Seed shared that partnerships such as this allows their company to introduce new varieties of seeds and showcase their technology and value innovations to the farmers. She added that they also want the local farmers to experience planting these varieties and test its performance.
Before the actual harvesting, the festival began with a short program.

In his remarks, Former Department of Agriculture (DA) Assistant Secretary and current Marinduque Provincial Agriculturist Edilberto de Luna, emphasized the importance of acquiring new knowledge in farming as it also counters the new challenges brought about by the modern, ever-changing world. He challenged the farmers to be more competitive in their produce in terms of production system, volume, quality, and price.

While the Boac Municipal Agriculture Officer Ederlinda Jasmin, appreciated how good results can also blossom from a convergence between the government and a private institution. In addition, OIC-PARPO II Engr. Virgilio L. Laggui highlighted the role of the DAR in linking agencies to respond to the needs of the farmers.  He ended his message with a call for consistency, asking the beneficiaries to always continue and never quit on farming.

Also present in the activity are OIC-MARPO Ceasar Laugo, Duyay Barangay Chairman Rolando Sapallo, the DAR Program Beneficiaries Development Division and DAR Municipal Office of Boac-Mogpog personnel, and the East West Seed Philippines and Philippine Information agency representatives. The farmer-beneficiaries of Bintakay Farmers Association based in Bintakay, Mogpog also participated as they manage the second demo farm site sponsored by East West Seed Philippines. (Press Release/DAR-Marinduque)