kaban galing - front cover - galing pook

Rural farmers remained dependent on traders and landlords for their
every need—the purchase of seeds, fertilizers and other farm inputs,
the payment of hired labor during harvest, a family member needing
hospitalization or burial, a child entering college or getting married, repair
of the house or farm implements, and even the celebration of the
barangay fiesta. Heavily indebted and having no capital, no technology,
no quality inputs and equipment and entrepreneurial skills, the farmer
ended up in more debt after each crop year.
For the majority of farmers this vicious cycle of poverty and
indebtedness has not been broken.
The Total Approach
To break these negative conditions affecting the farming population and
reverse the worsening condition in agriculture, the city government, in
cooperation with the farmers’ organizations and civil society
organizations, came up in 2002 with the Medium Term Agriculture and
Fisheries Modernization Program (MTAFMP). The program is a
complete package of technologies extended to all farming and fishing
households.
The vision was to achieve an improved living standard for the farming
and fishing households, while ensuring optimum, balanced and
sustainable development of the city. The goals for the family unit and the
city collective had to be integrated. The program specifically aimed to
reduce poverty, achieve food security for the city, ensure social equity
for farmers and fisherfolk, rationalize the use of the city’s scarce
resources, and promote people empowerment, sustainable
development and global competitiveness.
The program provides and organizes a wide range of interventions
and support mechanisms under its various components which cover
crop development, livestock development, fishery development,
technology and other support services, institutional capability building,
and farm and home resources management.
As a result of the program’s various interventions, agricultural
productivity has greatly improved, the local economy has been
revitalized, more resources were mobilized and people participation in
good governance was encouraged and nurtured. In response to the
government’s support and initiative, the farmers, fisherfolk, rural women
and youth have become active partners in barangay projects.
Modernization by the Book 13