Climate-Smart Agriculture big part in Governor’s SOPA

Governor Erico Aristotle C. Aumentado took a big share in his Climate-Smart Agriculture Program during his
closed to two hours State of the Province Address (SOPA) last Friday at the Bohol Cultural Center, this city.

Gov. Aumentado accounted in his second SOPA the agriculture development being implemented in his
administration through the Office of the Provincial Agriculture (OPA) and Office of the Provincial Veterinarian
(OPV) in strong collaboration with the Department of Agriculture (DA).

Aumentado proudly said that Bohol remains African Swine Fever (ASF)-free. He said that despite outbreaks in
many nearby provinces, we are still proudly ASF-free. We had a few close calls but they were quickly arrested and
contained, thus protecting our P6 Billion hog industry and even devoted a portion of the Provincial Government of
Bohol (PGBh) budget to cash assistance for ASF-affected hog raisers.

The governor said we are an awarding province in the Rice Competitiveness Program of the DA. In partnership
with the DA and the Office of the President, the PGBh held several fairs that enabled our Agri-fishery sector to earn
millions of pesos in income. These are the Kadiwa ng Pangulo, Kadiwa sa Kapitolyo, Ubi Festival, and most
recently, the Bohol Dairy Festival and Sandugo Agri-Food Fair.

Gov. Aumentado justified the conduct of the Cloud Seeding Operations (CSOs) as the PGBh has been committed
to help the agri-fishery sector who have been affected the still irregular rainfall condition even that the Philippine
Atmospheric Geo-Physical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAG-ASA) had already declared that we are
now in the normal rainfall condition.

The governor stressed that there are still towns in Northern Bohol in urgent need of water. With many urgent
requests from farmers’ groups and irrigators’ associations, and with scientific basis, our CSOs have been extended
as he thanked the cloud seeding task force for doing an excellent job.

He said that the CSOs are vital initiative which saved our farmers from huge agriculture losses.

He also accounted the Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP), in partnership with the DA, and funded by
the World Bank, has given Bohol many projects over the years: 8 farm-to-market roads with a total road length of 53
kilometers; 16 enterprise projects; 16 small livelihood projects for Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and five Potable
Water Systems, all totaling to more than P2 Billion for Bohol.

This too as he said that he is expecting even more funding for Bohol: the P625M road project spanning 12
kilometers with 4 bridges, the Calape-Antequera Farm to Market Road and more proposed projects coming at a total
estimated cost of P5.4B.

He also lauded President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. who came to Bohol just recently to personally distribute the
P50M in grants to Boholano farmers and fisherfolks in response to the severe impact on the agriculture sector
brought about by El Nino.

The governor delivered his second SOPA last Friday which was supposed to be done during July 22, 2024
(Bohol Day) as he during that time was under preventive suspension. By Atoy Cosap