THE propagation of moringa, commonly known as “malunggay” will be further boosted with the approval of the P4-million budget for the moringa project in Batangas.

Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary William Dar approved the budget during his meeting with farmer-members of the Malvar Organic Farmers Agriculture Cooperative (MOFAC), who will implement the said project.

The MOFAC’s moringa project in Batangas will coordinate with the Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR) and the DA-Regional Field Office (RFO) IV-A.

During the meeting, the cooperative’s proposals on organic high-value crop production, clustering and consolidation, and grassroots farming were discussed.

The project calls for establishing a nursery for malunggay seedlings, which will be distributed along with organic fertilizers and inputs to participating 150 to 200 farmers, and the provision of proper training on processing technologies for dry food-grade malunggay powder and dried malunggay leaves.

The cooperative also presented its P20.2M vanilla project, which will be piloted in Malvar. It also presented its P3.71M Bayanihan Agribusiness Cluster proposed project, which will benefit about 150 farmers from Malvar in its initial phase.

MOFAC Chairman Dr. Reynaldo Lantin expressed his gratitude to the DA for responding positively to their proposals.

“The importance of the projects is basically yung upliftment of the farmers, poor farmers especially, because of this cooperative. Through this cooperative, their production will be boosted, and their income will be increased. We catalyze, we stimulate the farmers,” Lantin said.

Dar, on the other hand, reminded the MOFAC members of the need for agricultural projects that are in line with the Plant, Plant, Plant Program Part 2 (PPP Part 2), which was implemented in March 2022 to counter the impacts of the Ukraine-Russia crisis and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

He stressed that with the crisis resulting in the surge of farm input prices, the local farmers’ current fertilizer levels, especially for rice production, may not be sustained, resulting in a decline of 1.1 million metric tons in production.

“Itong next six months will be more critical. Pumapalo na yung pagtaas ng inflation. It’s now reaching 4%. So there is global inflation and recession; the stagflation is there. So ‘yan lahat, imi-mitigate natin for agriculture,” Dar explained.

The PPP Part 2 mainly focuses on responding to the high fertilizer prices, promoting urban and peri-urban agriculture, enhancing local feed production using raw materials, boosting aquaculture and fisheries, and mobilizing food through the “KADIWA ni Ani at Kita”.

Dar further instructed MOFAC to document possible technologies to ensure that the focus areas are being met and to note agri-fishery components that need scaling up to brace for the impacts of both the pandemic and the crisis in Ukraine. By Cory Martinez