CLARK FREEPORT – To boost production and processing of root crops, the Aeta Indigenous Cultural Communities (ICCs) in San Marcelino Zambales will receive P5 million from the government.
On March 24, the Department of Agriculture Regional Field Office 3 (DA RO3) inked a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the Central Luzon office of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples Region 3 (NCIP R3).
Crispulo G. Bautista, Jr., DA RO3 Regional Executive Director and Atty. Roland P. Calde NCIP R3 Regional Director signed the MOA on Inclusive Enterprise Development Support Projects and Production and Processing of Root Crops (Purple Yam / Ube) under the Bayanihan 2, “Recover as One Act” or R.A. 11494.
Calde thanked the DA RO3 for providing aid to the Aera IPs in Zambales. He said the funding will address the availability and accessibility of food for Aetas in San Marcelino during the surge of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Under the Agreement, the NCIP through San Marcelino Community Service Center will directly implement the project together with the ICCs/IPs of San Marcelino, Zambales represented by Samahang Katutubong Ayta ng San Marcelino (SKASM).
Further, the MOA stated that SKASM shall establish a three hectare purple yam (ube) plantation in each of the identified Sitios within San Marcelino.
Likewise, the SKASM shall provide 120,000 ube rhizomes or rootstocks in the first year of implementation of the project. In addition, SKASM will provide ube rhizomes to all IPs to be planted on their gasak or the traditional Ayta farm lots one year after the commencement of the project.
The SKASM will buy the ube harvest of the ICCs/IPs to be processed as ube powder and the DA RO3 will help SKASM market the ube powder.
The target implementation of the project is from April to September 2021.