DAVAO CITY (PIA) – The Southern Davao Multi-Purpose Cooperative (SDMC) of Barangay Basiawan in Sta. Maria town, Davao Occidental, has received one (1) unit of a four-stroke-engine tricycle from the Enhanced Partnership Against Hunger and Poverty (EPAHP) project of the Department of Agrarian Reform.

Zaldy Arenas, provincial agrarian reform program officer of DAR Davao Occidental, turned over the unit to the SDMC officers during a recent launching activity of EPAHP in the province.

On its Facebook page post, DAR Davao Occidental said that the vehicle is part of the project’s P960,000.00 package which is expected to help the organization in its marketing system, especially in terms of delivery of cacao beans and by products to institutional buyers.

The EPAHP project, which also includes capability building training component, would also help boost the cooperative’s tablea-making.

A tablea or a ball of ground-up cacao beans, is an ingredient of the Filipino chocolate rice porridge or “champorado” which is given to daycare children in the municipality during a feeding program by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), a lead partner of the program.

According to DAR, the EPAHP is one of the banner programs of the Inter-Agency Task Force Zero Hunger created under Executive Order No. 101 of former President Rodrigo Duterte.

The program aimed at addressing hunger mitigation, food nutrition security and poverty reduction more effectively through the whole-of-nation approach, and establishing sustainable agriculture by 2030. (PIA-XI/Yadz Geyrozaga, DAR Davao Occidental)