PORO, CEBU — Gov. Gwen Garcia, accompanied by town Mayor Gary Rama and Vice Mayor Dina Rama, inspected a proposed site for a corn-drying facility that is being eyed to be built in Purok Santan, Barangay Mercedes here today, November 28.
Joining the Governor were Board Members Red Duterte, Mike Villamor and Glenn Soco; Tudela Mayor Greman Solante, her daughter Carissa, as well as municipal and barangay officials here.
The site, a 910-square-meter property owned by the local government unit, has been committed for the important project.
Officials of the town, led by Mayor Rama, have expressed willingness to allocate more area, if need be, to accommodate the facility.
The construction of a corn-drying facility is part of the Cebu Provincial Government’s drive of encouraging local farmers here to shift to planting yellow corn. Aside from high harvest yield, yellow corn also has a captured market, as the Capitol is able to hook farmers up with large companies that require tons upon tons of yellow corn per month for their products, such as feeds producers.
The program, known as Sugbo Maisan, has been implemented in Medellin in order to help sugarcane farmers make the transition, especially that sugar mills have stopped operating in the area, making for sugarcane planting untenable in the long run.
The Medellin corn-drying facility cost P5.9 million and features four 15-ton corn dryers. The facility, with an area of 428 square meters, is still under construction. | BJR
