In a bid to uphold women empowerment in the agricultural sector and to ensure food security, the city of Sto. Tomas, Batangas launches Sulong Program, a voucher system benefiting female residents engaged in crop production.

The coupon distribution program aims to strengthen women participation in the city’s economic growth is one of the local governments’ 12-point agenda intensifying agricultural sector to increase crop production for sustainable food supply and generate additional family income thus, enabling women farmers showcase their potentials in the male-dominated sector of nurturing soil including idle lands.

Sto. Tomas City Mayor Arth Jhun Aguilar Marasigan is optimistic that the program will help local farmers especially women crop producers in extracting their full potentials in delivering sufficient nourishment each family has to share with.

As a progressive city like Sto. Tomas where industrialization inevitably prosper, Mayor Marasigan guarantees that the socioeconomic shift which may result in rural displacement and increased landlessness for smallholder farmers will not directly affect the agriculture sector.

Mayor Marasigan noted that alongside fast industrial development which generates employment opportunities not only for city residents but for non-residents coming from other localities including nearby provinces, expected mass migration follows, requiring supplementary residential spaces and increase demands on farm produce to fill an additional stomach.

 We want to make sure that healthy and safe food source will be accessible to all at an affordable price which could only be realized if the government will augment farmers’ inputs to boost production, the mayor said.

With the voucher system, qualified local farmers will be provided with coupon equivalent to P15,000 worth of farm inputs payable in half without incur interest. Returning half of the seed money totaling P7,500 will be 20% or P1,500 during the first harvest, 20% or P1,500 during the second harvest and 60% or P4,500 on the third harvest.

The city uses the Registry System for Basic Sector of Agriculture (RSBSA) in identifying beneficiaries enrolled for agriculture-related programs and services that includes farmers, farm workers and fisherfolk.

Accredited suppliers were also identified to make certain that farm inputs like seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and farm tools will be readily available.

To qualify for the vouchers system, farmers must be listed on the RSBSA, with proof of farm ownership or a lease agreement for vegetable production and must attend training aligned with the program’s objective.

To date, the city has 64 women farmer beneficiaries enrolled in the voucher system program endorsed to accredited suppliers mostly registered cooperatives and reliable businesses involved in selling agricultural products.

The city also partners with institutional buyers to create a stable supply chain for a sure market of the expected produce at an unalterable but reasonable price.