TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE. The Local Adaptation to Water Access (LAWA) or water reservoir in Esparar, Barbaza. The Department of Agriculture will provide technical assistance for the Breaking Insufficiency through Nutritious Harvest for Impoverished (BINHI) project in areas where the LAWA project is present. (Photo courtesy of Pamela Azucena)
SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique – The Department of Agriculture (DA) will extend technical assistance for the implementation of the Project Breaking Insufficiency through Nutritious Harvest for Impoverished (BINHI) in Antique aimed to ensure food security.
Project BINHI seeks to strengthen the adaptive capacities of poor and vulnerable families during severe drought conditions by planting vegetables and other crops.
DA Regional Executive Director for Western Visayas Dennis Arpia said in an interview Monday they are open to collaboration with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Regional Office 6 for the project.
“We will be providing technical assistance to the BINHI beneficiaries to make the project sustainable and for their communities to progress,” he said.
The technical assistance includes the identification of project sites, capacity building on small farm reservoirs, urban or peri-urban agricultural activities, and providing needed seedlings.
In a separate interview, Mylene Binondo, DSWD Regional Office 6 Preparedness for Disaster Response section head, said they already have initial coordination with DA for the project targeted to start after the signing of an understanding this month.
“We are now in the process of working out a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with DA as well as the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), and the Antique provincial government for the implementation of BINHI,” she said.
Through the BINHI, beneficiaries will plant vegetables and other crops around water reservoir projects of the Local Adaptation to Water Access (LAWA) initiative.
“In Antique, there are three municipalities with 10 LAWA service areas each,” Binondo said.
Validation is ongoing in Sibalom, Sebaste and Barbaza towns, which also served as pilot areas for LAWA.
DSWD will provide 20 days of cash-for-work and cash-for-training to beneficiaries of the BINHI project.
BFAR will give fingerlings for culture at the water reservoir, and the DILG will ensure the implementation of the LAWA and BINHI projects with the help of municipal and provincial governments. (PNA)
