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Maasin
City - Southern Leyte’s Sangguniang Panlalawigan
gives agriculture top priority by serving it the biggest slice in
the provincial budget. Provincial Governor Damian G. Mercado revealed
this in his key message during the launch of a Farmers’ Information
and Technology Services (FITS) Center in this city last September
5. The FITS center is the 13th in the province of Leyte and is hosted
by the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist (OPA).
The governor
also welcomed guests and participants and congratulated the staff
of OPA-Southern Leyte for successfully facilitating the launching
of the new center. Further, he committed to provide the center facilities
like computers and Internet for better access of information materials.
The regional
executive director of the agricultural department of Region 8, Leo
P. Cañeda, also graced the opening of the center, along with
other officials and staff of the Visayas Consortium for Agriculture
and Resources Program (ViCARP).
Cañeda said he was very glad for the initiative taken by
Southern Leyte in establishing a FITS center in Maasin City. He
stressed that FITS centers are very helpful to municipalities and
expressed his desire to increase the number of these centers in
the region.
Dr. Jose L.
Bacusmo, ViCARP director, gave an overview of the Techno Gabay Program
(TGP), presenting the objectives, modalities, and benefits of adopting
the program. Bacusmo stressed that one of the main goals of TGP
is to provide information and technology services in agriculture,
forestry, and natural resources to our farmers and fisherfolks and
interested entrepreneurs. He gave the audience an idea of how strategic
the locations of the existing FITS centers are and presented the
map of Eastern Visayas, showing the 12 existing FITS centers.
Aside
from its information services, the OPA-Southern Leyte FITS Center
also displays and sells locally produced abaca products and processed
foods, such as bukorillo, salvaro, banana chips, camote chips, and
macapuno tart. – (Sheena Mae Pasana/ViCARP-RCTU)
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