ALANG-ALANG, Leyte – Mayor Jaime Ellemar Velarde of this town revealed that his municipality is the pilot area of the abaca farming being introduced in the first district by Rep. Remedios “Matin” Petilla.
Velarde said the initial pilot abaca plantation in a 50-hectare land is over a year now and the plants, which are being taken cared of by 20 trained farmers, are all growing well.
Velarde believed that the prevailing climate and the kind of soil the first district municipalities are very suitable for agriculture including abaca farming.
Mayor Pruto Bazil of San Miguel, Leyte is also developing an abaca plantation in his town, with 150 San Miguel farmers to undergo training on abaca farming in a 75-hectare land identified as abaca plantation.
In a consultative meeting with seven mayors of the first district last week, Rep. Petilla said it would be in Babatngon, Leyte where her Abaca Production Center will be established because the town has 700 hectares of land available for a site of the center aside the hectares of land reserved for abaca plantation.
Gradually, other towns in the first district will follow in the implementation of the abaca plantation project, she said.
Meanwhile, Babatngon Mayor Ernesto Fabi said that once then projects starts and become fully operational in his town, it would provide employment and an additional revenue to the locality.
The towns in the first district of Leyte are Palo, Alang-alang, Sta. Fe, Tanauan, Tolosa, San Miguel, Babatngon and the city of Tacloban.
According to Petilla, the abaca industry in the fifth district of Leyte that she has supported when she was still Leyte governor has boomed, and she expressed hope that this would happen in the first district.
Petilla said that abaca production is one of her three priority projects in her district. The other two are high value vegetable production and mariculture projects.
