VALENCIA CITY, Bukidnon (PIA)—The Department of Agriculture in Northern Mindanao (DA-NorMin) recently turned over a seed storage facility worth P7.11 million at Nutriland, Purok 2, Pinatilan, this city.

The building has a total floor area of 320 square meters, including a 99-ton cold chamber with a 160-square-meter storage area for seeds. It also includes a 160 square-meter ambient area with a load capacity of 156 tons.

Regional Executive Director Milo D. delos Reyes emphasized during the ceremony that the structure will be useful not only for rice but also for storing fertilizers and other farm inputs that the city will receive from the department.

He urged Valencia City's local government to create an Agricultural Biosystems Engineering Division to help in the upkeep of the seeds and farm machinery they had acquired.

Valencia City Mayor Azucena P. Huervas thanked the Department for its assistance and expressed hope for DA-10’s continued support, noting that the city is an irrigated and diverse agricultural area.

Huervas said that the city has a 14-hectare land designated as a farm demonstration area to showcase various agricultural crops and farming practices in the city and throughout Bukidnon.

Aside from the seed storage in Nutriland, which refers to the city's lot reserved for farm expo and nutritional programs, it also houses the P4.3 million warehouse, both of which projects are carried out under DA-10's Rice program.

According to the mayor, 30,000 hectares of the city's 63,126 hectares are suitable for agriculture, with 5,855 farmers cultivating 11,000 hectares for rice production.

Valencia City Agriculturist Connie L. Dalangan, city government officials, and DA-10 functionaries were among the other guests who graced the ceremony. (DA-10/PIA 10-Bukidnon)