DAVAO CITY—The Department of Agriculture (DA) would soon have its own laboratory complex to address the various concerns of farmers and fishermen, as the department is also poised to get the bulk of the $6-billion loan accessed from the China visit of President Duterte.
Grace P. Gutierrez, senior science research specialist of the regional DA’s Integrated Development Grant, said the Southern Mindanao Integrated Agricultural Laboratory would gather together the four main laboratory complexes of the department under the sprawling complex southwest of downtown.
The 3-hectare complex in Barangay Manambulan, Tugbok District, would house the Regional Soils Laboratory, the Regional Disease Diagnostic Laboratory, the Regional Crop Protection Center and the Feed Chemical Analysis Laboratory.
All four are currently in various separate locations in downtown and in the suburbs, “forcing farmers to be discouraged in seeking help from the government,” she said.
The integrated laboratory would have one two-floor building with a total area of 2,000 square meters, and seven building annexes. All the buildings would house one of three research stations of the research division, and the four laboratories of the integrated laboratory section. The research station is the Davao Regional Control Experiment Station, designated for all researches in the mid-elevation sector of crops and livestock.
The other two stations would not be pulled out from their current location and its operation would be enhanced instead with support additional building. These are the Davao Commercial Agriculture Research Station in Mati, Davao Oriental, for the lowland sector and the Davao Regional Upland Research Station in Marilog District, for the upland sector. “We would be putting up multipurpose buildings in these two stations to improve their operation,” she added.
The seven annex buildings would have a combined floor area of 2,000 square meters. The construction of the complex would start in January next year. She said construction of the new regional office of the DA would also be started in January next year, with a budget of P160 million.
The integrated laboratory would be funded by the DA, with P45 million to be shelled out by the DA Bureau of Agricultural Research for the construction, and P55 million from the regional DA itself. Another P50 million has been earmarked for the additional equipment needed by the four laboratories.
Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Pinol said he has asked the contractor to finish the construction within two years, instead of the projected five years. “The people are already expecting a lot from government, and they don’t deserve to be put in waiting, because they have been waiting for the longest time before,” he said.
Pinol said the construction of the integrated laboratory would be one of the “drastic signal” of the administration “that agriculture sector would have the full support of the President.”
He said Duterte had intimated the bulk of the $6-billion loan extended by China to the Philippines would go to agriculture.
He said the DA would get $1.5 billion of this loan, or a quarter of the amount. “The rest would be given to the Department of Public Works and Highways, and other agencies.”
The P1-billion credit access for farmers and fishermen would not be taken out from this loan, he said, as he clarified that “the money is already there through the Land Bank.”