Leyte solon shifts focus from infra to livelihood

TACLOBAN CITY, Jan. 9 (PNA) - A veteran solon is shifting his focus from road concreting to projects that would raise the income of poor families in the second congressional district of Leyte province.

Leyte 2nd district Rep. Sergio Apostol said there’s a need now to focus on raising rice productivity in the province from the current 60 to 80 sacks per hectare to 150 to 200 sacks per hectare.

“We have to introduce scientific development to increase the yield. This is on top of the assistance on irrigation, seeds, fertilizer and insecticides,” said Apostol, who is one of the deputy speaker of the House of Representatives.

The 80-year-old solon believed that low-income farmers are more motivated to adopt technologies since it is now easier to bring product from farms to trading centers.

The lawmaker reported that almost all of 292 kilometers national road are now concrete. Pavement is now ongoing in few kilometers of road sections connecting Burauen and Abuera towns and Burauen to Mahagnao National Park.

“Our work now is now concentrated on widening because we’re done with concreting. We cannot stay stationary and we have to move forward through more livelihood projects,” Apostol added.

Other ongoing livelihood assistance is the planting of high value crops in coconut farms hit by super typhoon Yolanda in 2013. The solon is also planning to provide refrigerated vans to transport fresh farm products from Leyte to Luzon. (PNA)
JBP/Sarwell Q. Meniano