German group pours P12M for enhancement of food security in Leyte

By Rodrigo S. Victoria

Tuesday 20th of March 2012

TACLOBAN CITY, Leyte, March 20 (PIA) -- The Deutsche Geseilschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit better known as GIZ has poured in some P12 million for projects of identified local government units (LGUs) in Leyte Island, under the Enhancement of Food Security (EFOS)Project in the Visayas, a component of the Environment and Rural Development Program of GIZ.

In a document furnished by GIZ, GIZ though fund sources from the European Union poured in a total of P12, 840,193 worth of EFOS projects in the municipalities of Anahawan and Silago in Southern Leyte, and Kananga in Leyte.

GIZ allocated with a grant from the European Union (EU) the amount of P4.2 million in the rehabilitation of a six-kilometer (km) poor farm-to-market road (FMR) which has not been maintained or developed for 30 years in the municipality of Anahawan, Southern Leyte. An amount of P0.6 million was allocated by Anahawan as counterpart fund.

The rehabilitation of the six-km FMR will pave the way for the increase in trading activities of agricultural products that had been marked by the very slow and time consuming transportation of their agricultural produce on foot or on carabao or cattle-drawn sleds coming from barangays Capacuhan, Kangingkingan, Mainit, and part of Poblacion in Anahawan town during the past decades.

GIZ with a grant from EU also allocated P4.4 million for the rehabilitation of existing FMRs in six barangays in Silago town in Southern Leyte mainly for the construction of side ditches, and compaction and installation of culverts in strategic locations.

The rehabilitation of the almost 20 km FMR is an intervention in response to the continuing problems on the road especially during heavy and prolonged rains which will pave the way for the provision of better transport of members and farm inputs and products in barangays Sudmon, Mercedes, Balagawan, Tubaon, Laguma, and Salvacion, all in Silago town.

The project with a counterpart fund of P0.7 million from LGU-Silago has benefited 880 poor and unskilled households who receive wages for doing rehabilitation works and 935 households from the assets in terms of better transport of members and farm inputs and products coming from the six barangays of the town.

Moreover, GIZ allocated P4,240,193 for the establishment of P5.38 million-worth of the Leyte Provincial Freshwater Fish Hatchery, an expansion of the mini-fish hatchery of Kananga Integrated Production Center(KIPC) in the municipality of Kananga in Leyte province. The provincial government of Leyte also poured in P1,066,979 and P74,000 from the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR).

The 1,388 square meters fish hatchery that can accommodate 600 breeders in its first five months operations since its establishment in 2007 had provided tilapia fry to 1, 255 backyard fishpond operators which enable them to stock three times a year from only once and help sustain the operation of the KIPC.

These three EFOS projects implemented by GIZ are to be visited by some ten Manila-based journalists and a representative from the regional office of PIA 8 together with GIZ officials on March 21-22, 2012. (EOPT/RSV-PIA 8)