DONATION. Some 4,000 bags of 50-kg. well-milled rice will be repacked at the local food terminal in San Miguel, Iloilo. The 200 metric tons of rice supply purchased by the Korea International Cooperation Agency will be donated to the national government in support of its relief efforts, the Western Visayas agriculture office said on Thursday (June 18, 2020). (PNA photo by DA-6 RAFIS)
ILOILO CITY – The Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) has purchased 4,000 bags of 50-kg. well-milled rice from Panay farmers, valued at PHP5 million, in support of the relief efforts of the national government.
“They bought here in Iloilo because they also patronize their projects,” Department of Agriculture (DA) 6 (Western Visayas) Executive Director Remelyn Recoter said in an interview Thursday.
The KOICA funded the Panay Island Upland Sustainable Rural Development project, which has 10 Bayanihan Tipon Centers (BTCs) in strategic places on the island and a Local Food Terminal (LFT) in San Miguel, Iloilo. It also funded the Iloilo Rice Processing Complex in Pototan town.
The rice stocks were acquired from the BTCs in Tapaz and Jamindan, Capiz; Lambunao and San Miguel in Iloilo; and Patnongon, Antique, as well as the rice-processing complex.
The KOICA, through its Emergency Rice Support Project, purchased 200 metric tons equivalent to 4,000 bags of well-milled rice. They are currently stocked at the LFT, which serves as the consolidating center.
The rice supplies will be repacked into 6-kg. bags and shipped to Manila as KOICA's donation to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) National Resource Operations Center.
Recoter said the LFT is just waiting for the materials that would be used for the repacking, which were ordered from Cebu.
She expressed hope that there would be more purchases, although she said the KOICA also extended assistance to other areas where they have projects, such as in Mindanao.
“The identified municipalities are more than self-sufficient. With this, at least they have (an) additional market,” Recoter said.
The DA record showed that Patnongon is 247-percent rice sufficient; Jamindan, 257 percent; Tapaz, 93 percent; Lambunao, 169 percent; Pototan, 334 percent; and San Miguel, 207 percent. (PNA)
