Gov. Yap: Agri extension workers services continue

The Agricultural Extension Workers (AEWs) services in the Provincial Government of Bohol (PGBh) must be continued especially in this time of crisis wherein the government is focussing on its food security program.

This was the categorical statement issued by Governor Art C. Yap last Friday during the zoom press conference when asked if the services of the AEWs are still needed nowadays considering that there are agricultural technicians assigned in their respective municipalities.

The governor instead lauded the efforts given by the AEWs in helping the Boholano farmers to boost their production.

He said that this time that the provincial government has given full focus attention on agriculture as the tourism industry has collapsed and we are not certain on when to boom again, the AEWs are important to help the farmers for the exact application of fertilizers and other farm technologies to increase yield and less production cost through the use of farm machineries in the clustering farming.

Yap said that the capacity of AEWs has already been tested in the Advanced Rice Technology (ART) 160 Hybrid Rice, Art 120 Inbred Rice, and Agricultural Rural Transformation (ART) Corn 100 Technology programs of the province wherein the farmers have yielded more than the given target of each commodity.

He said that because of the AEWs Bohol now is a model agricultural province after it was being named by Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary William Dar as one of the pilot areas of Province-Led Agriculture and Fisheries Extension Systems (PAPES) that could expect addition funding from the DA national office based on the Mandanas Ruling.

Yap explained that ensuring food security is the second priority of the PGBh as the first priority is the controlling of COVID-19 cases in Bohol.

He said that more efforts have been given by the provincial government to get the vaccines in order that the people would be vaccinated, strictly implementation of the minimum health protocols so that the cases would go down and the investment would come to Bohol.

To complement in the agriculture program is the water project wherein most of the 1,109 barangays in Bohol had already received the P100, 000 to establish or augment their water projects, the governor concluded. (Atoy Cosap)