BUTUAN CITY- Spearheaded by the Agricultural Training Institute – Regional Training Center XIII, the first regional League of the Municipal Agricultural Officers, Municipal/ City Agriculturists of the Philippines Inc. (LeMMCAP) was conducted at Almont Inland Resort on July 22, 2022.

The activity aims to conduct a series of Regional Program Management – Technical Working Group (RPM-TWG) meetings for the Province-led Agriculture and Fisheries Extension System (PAFES) in non-pilot provinces of Caraga Region. This is also done to strengthen the relationship between the public and private sectors both aiming to boost and achieve the development of the region’s agricultural sector.

Engr. Zamzamin L. Ampatuan, the Department of Agriculture’s Undersecretary on Regulation and Infrastructure, was one of the guest speakers who urged the MAOs to give attention to current issues faced by the sector as they play an important role as main agricultural extensionists leading to change in the local community. Some of the issues he mentioned were: animal disease occurrences such as the African Swine Fever (ASF), monitoring of production, and lack of communication between farmers.

Moreover, the importance of having Barangay Agricultural Workers (BAWs) that help in the early monitoring of animal and crop disease and the status of the agriculture community and enterprise system. “It is better that we’re informed, better to plan, and see better strategies in our interventions,” Undersecretary Zamzamin said.

DA-Caraga Regional Executive Director, Engr. Ricardo M. Oñate, highlighted the food resiliency program of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. He also presented the DA’s mandate and mission and introduced the sufficiency levels of regional priority commodities. He stressed that the DA family will continue to work together as one as OneDA approach.
The participants also listened to Emmylou P. Burias, LGOO IV of DILG Caraga, as she discussed the full devolution and LGU devolution transition implementation. She ended her presentation with the statement, “Tamang podo, angat serbisyo.”

Further, the event was highlighted by the election and oath-taking of the provincial and regional LeMMCAP officers.

The convention was done in coordination with the DA-Caraga Region, PhilRice Agusan Experiment Station, Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA), Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) headed by Dr. Nilo M. Katada, RAFC through Chairman Christopher Lindo, and outgoing LeMMCAP President Jose Zaldy Manug (with report from Charmaine Lighidan).