The combined provision of support services and infrastructure facilities from different government institutions led by the Department of Agrarian Reform have helped uplift the lives of rice and vegetable farmers here.

DAR Provincial Agrarian Reform Program officer James Arthur Dubongco said the collaboration among different government agencies was instrumental in extending assistance to the 351 members of the Palangue Agrarian Reform Cooperative.

The PARC, a DAR-assisted cooperative, was established on 5 July, 1995 with an initial capital of P21,100 from its 34 founding members who are agrarian reform beneficiaries.

Dubongco said that since the PARC’s establishment, the DAR has been providing various support services in the form of machines, equipment, farm-to-market roads, irrigation, loans, and various training.

Among the latest projects granted to the PARC by the DAR is a 200-square meter vegetable greenhouse with solar-powered drip irrigation and fertigation system. The P1-million greenhouse was provided under the Sustainable and Resilient Agrarian Reform Communities project and was turned over to the cooperative last year.

“Farming under greenhouse conditions helps farmers sustain their production all year round and protect their crops from adverse climatic conditions and insects and diseases,” Dubongco said.