Farmers also perform frontliners' role in fight vs. COVID-19
There is a sector in the country whose members do not don Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) like face masks, surgical gloves, etc. but are frontliners, too, in the Philippines’ struggle to fight corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which has afflicted thousands of Filipinos and claimed hundreds of lives.
With the presence of this sector, Filipinos are assured that there is food on the table to keep the medical frontliners nourished and fed, and also those people in the community who are quarantined to help ward off the dreaded disease.
It is composed of farmers who toil the land so that everybody can eat. In Aklan, the group's importance is never more pronounced during this time when the province is doing its best to beat the disease and to feed the thousands of Aklanons at the same time who are told to stay home under home quarantine.
The province's farmers are made stronger and empowered with the help of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) who organized them into cooperatives.
These farmers are mostly agrarian reform beneficiaries as almost all municipalities in the province have agrarian reform communities.
Teresita Grace M. Quimpo, former DAR-Aklan Information Officer-designate and currently Senior Agrarian Reform Program Officer, said being in cooperatives, these farmers are working for sustainable development of their communities and to contribute to make their communities better and healthier.
True to this principle, these Aklan cooperatives now are rising to help their members and communities in coping with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Frontliners in Kalibo, Numancia and Makato have tasted a dose of these farmers’ efforts when the Numancia Vegetables and Fruit Farmers Multipurpose Cooperative (NVFFMPC) in Badio, Numancia, distributed to them 220 bottles of Talbo C (an FDA-approved and locally-produced juice drink from calamansi and talbos ng kamote), and 23 packs of biscuits.
For households in Napaan in Malay town, the Kalipunan ng Maliliit na Magniniyog ng Napaan (KAMMANA MPC) distributed 210 foodpacks at P200 pesos per pack.
In the aftermath of Typhoon Ursula, the KAMMANA MPC has also provided assistance to their members, while during the Boracay closure, the cooperative extended emergency loans to their members to help them get by.
In Kabulihan, Malay, the Kabulihan Coconut Farmers MPC provided food packs to 120 households consisting of rice, sardines, noodles, coffee and sugar.
Quimpo also revealed that other coops who have risen to serve during this COVID pandemic are Aparicio Agrarian Reform Cooperative and Monlaque Agrarian Reform Coop. all from in Ibajay where each member was able to borrow money in the form of basic goods through the coop store; while in Buruanga, the Balusbos, El Progreso, Nazareth, Tag-osip, Cabugan and Habana or BENTCH Agrarian Reform coop supported its members affected by the crisis through rice loans.
In Makato, the Libang Irrigators Association reduced the rice milling cost from P2.50 to P2.00 per kilo of their rolling store mill for all members and non-members, while in Tangalan, the Tagas Farmers MPC distributed eggplants produced by their demo farm tp both members and non-members.
Producing fermented wild ginger as substitute rubbing alcohol and opening their nursery to the community to harvest ginger as herbal anti-cough remedy was the contribution of the Rosario Multipurpose Cooperative of Rosario, Malinao, Aklan to their community to help fight COVID-19. This cooperative also provided 18 sacks of rice to 30 4Ps households in the area.
In Altavas, the Man-Up Multipurpose Cooperative provided foot dip to the Barangay Hall and checkpoint in Brgy. Cabangila, made of coco peat from their coco oil mill.
Throughout all these, cooperative members also conducted information dissemination to their members through the social media, and distributed information materials on COVID-19 awareness and prevention.
With these efforts and contributions, these farmers, backed by DAR-Aklan, show that far beyond providing food on the table, they are also in the forefront of fighting this challenge called COVID-19, and are also life-saving frontliners. (JSC/VGV/PIA6 Aklan)
