BUTUAN CITY – Citing the developments in the agriculture sector, Agsuan del Sur Governor Santiago Cane, Jr. emphasized that the provincial government has been working so well and in a good partnership with the Department of Agriculture (DA) Caraga, as the agency continues to provide the necessary interventions for the local farmers amid the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. 

“Our plans are aligned to give assistance to our farmers and fisherfolks. Right at the government center, we have six hectares of land where we can plant palay/rice, and I've instructed our provincial agriculturist to develop it. We will turn it into an area for the production of certified seeds so we can give them away for free for rice farmers. Since there was also a concern on the low price of palay, we also established contingency plans for all rice producers that should rice price went below P13 per kilo, we will give them subsidies by providing them free transportation cost, or a P2-transport subsidy and assist them in drying their palay,” Cane said.

Governor Cane also recalled how farmers got affected with the recent typhoon Odette that hit the region including parts of Agusan del Sur, and how they were able to survive the disaster. 

“We're back to normal already. When typhoon Odette struck last December, we were not greatly affected, there were only a few families who evacuated and some lost their homes, but these are very few individuals in the different municipalities. We've provided aid to the 10 affected barangays, especially the barangays along the Agusan River and floating barangays which sustained damage in their agricultural crops,” said Cane, as he shared the situation and assistance from the provincial government provided to the victims of typhoon Odette.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Cane further reiterated that the provincial government still continues to provide the necessary assistance to the local government units and tourism sector to enhance and develop their respective tourism sites. 

“Agusan del Sur is a land-locked province, even if we have no seas, we have nature tourism to offer to tourists like the Bega Falls in Prosperidad; Tugonon Waterfalls in San Lorenzo, Prosperidad; Makiwata in San Francisco. We help the LGUs improve their tourism sites. We also have cultural tourism and Agusan Marsh which is the biggest freshwater marsh in the Philippines,” he said.

The governor also assured that more developments will be put in place in the province for the benefit of the locals. “The programs are aimed at reducing poverty incidence like Upland Sustainable Agri-forestry Development (USAD) which we continued, and provided farm inputs and supervision of technical training to farmers. We added lowland Agro-forestry development, and Wetland Sustainable Aquaculture Development in our wetland areas,” he said.

“At the start of my term in 2019, I called for an executive legislative agenda and the target is to reduce poverty incidence by 6% in Agusan del Sur in three years. All programs from 2019 to 2022 were focused on reducing poverty incidence, but due to COVID-19, it halted the progress of these programs because most of the funds to be used were diverted and realigned for COVID-19,” added Cane. (JPG/PIA-Agusan del Sur)