DA Empowers Upland Farmers, Launches Capiz Bio Control Lab

DA Empowers Upland Farmers,

Launches Capiz Bio Control Lab

Launching of Bio-control Laboratory at Brgy. Malapad Cogon, Sigma, Capiz

 Aiming to promote sustainable production even in hilly and upland areas, the Department of Agriculture (DA) Regional Field Office 6 through the Capiz Research Outreach Station (ROS) gathered farmers and local government units of Capiz in the 2nd Farmers Field Day and launched the bio-control laboratory at Brgy. Malapad Cogon, Sigma, Capiz, September 25. 

With the support on the provincial and municipal governments, the DA seeks to enable upland farmers improve their production volume without causing harm to the environment.

“We are here to share research technologies to farmers which are appropriate to upland areas. We campaign for soil conservation practices so that we could preserve its fertility and increase our crop production,” said Lilia Peñaranda, Capiz ROS Center Chief.

Capiz Provincial Agriculturist Sylvia Dela Cruz affirms, “Our production practices should be coupled with environment-friendly technologies. We also have to give value to government subsidies such as farm inputs and postharvest facilities.”

As support to that, the DA Regional Crop Protection Center has established a biological control laboratory at Capiz ROS in order to control insect pests of priority crops. Also, the bio-control lab is put up to have a ready supply of biological agents in the ROS to be used by farmers within the area of coverage and to train personnel on mass-production and utilization of these biological agents. 

Manuela Alviar of the RCPC explained, “this laboratory is expected to address the problem on pesticides’ hazards to environment and to human health as it will be a production venue for Trichogramma, an insect used by farmers to protect crops from pest infestations.”

The bio-control building with rearing cages, shelves, tables and refrigerators cost P900,000. /MP