Bracing up into becoming the IFED Center in the country while sustaining food production amidst the enhanced community quarantine, Department of Agriculture-Regional Field Office I Regional Executive Director Lucrecio Alviar, Jr. together with the R&D Group led by RTD for R&D, Dr. Jovita Datuin strategized the P34.5 million fund for the implementation of various IFED projects in the region in a consultation meeting held at the DA-RFO I 5th Floor Conference Room on April 20, 2020.

IFED or the Enhancing Innovative Family Enterprise Development (IFED) is an R&D Project which aims to provide sustainable source of income and livelihood for family members while at the same time providing a stable source of foods in support to the Plant, Plant, Plant Program or the DA’s ALPAS (Ahon Lahat, Pagkaing Sapat) kontra Covid-19.

Of the P34.5 million budgetary requirement, DA is shouldering the P27.5 million while the remaining P7 million shall come from the Bureau of Agriculture Research (BAR).

Four IFED projects are set for implementation in the region with bulk of the funds allocated for the chicken and egg production amounting to P15.114 million, followed by the production on goat with P10.06 million. On the other hand, the IFED on pinakbet vegetable and green corn production has an allocation each of P7.927 million and P1.423 million, respectively.

In a presentation made by the focal persons for each project, the IFED on chicken and egg production project shall involve 15 municipalities and two cities regionwide to include the three BAR-funded projects in the province of Ilocos Sur.

In Ilocos Norte, the municipalities of Dingras and Vintar were identified as the project sites while in the province of Ilocos Sur, the project sites will be in Suyo, San Juan, Sta. Maria, Magsingal and Bantay.

For La Union, the municipality of Bagulin and the City of San Fernando were the identified sites while the municipalities of Malasiqui, Sta. Barbara, Burgos, Sual and Sison including the City of San Carlos were the identified sites in the province of Pangasinan.

As part of the project guideline under the IFED egg and chicken production, each project site shall have 30 farmer-cooperator who will be part of the IFED modality and will be given 18 heads ready to lay pullets and 2 heads cockerel of better bred colored-free range chicken as a start-up kit.

With the demand for native chicken and considering the marketability of the commodity in a certain area, RED Alviar suggested to provide native chickens to farmer-cooperators identifying the city of San Fernando in La Union and the town of Suyo in Ilocos Sur as recipients of the project.

Meanwhile, identified sites for the IFED goat production project were the municipalities of Sta. Maria (P9.3 million) and San Juan (P400,000) in Ilocos Sur and the municipality of Malasiqui (P300,000) in Pangasinan.

With the collaboration of the R&D and Livestock Banner Program, the 100 selected farmer-beneficiaries shall be given 5 does and 1 buck stocks including biologics and forage planting materials from the DA-research stations.

For the IFED vegetable production, the same municipalities under the egg and chicken production were identified as recipients of the project but not necessarily be on the same barangay.

The DA through the High Value Crops Development Program shall be providing pinakbet vegetable seeds to identified recipients while others may avail seedling materials ready for planting thru the DA-research stations for backyard or container gardening. To sustain the project, RED Alviar asked the focal person to provide OPV seeds to the recipients other than the hybrid seeds.

Ms. Constancia Diaz, Chief of the Pangasinan Research and Experiment Center located in Sta. Barbara, Pangasinan, informed during the consultation meeting that her office will start distributing seedlings on tray this second week of May as there are already 100 trays available for distribution.

Under the IFED Corn, the municipalities of Burgos in Ilocos Sur, City of Batac in Ilocos Norte, Rosario in La Union and Sta. Maria in Pangasinan were among the selected recipients of the green corn production project. As an intervention under the project, DA will provide seeds and other inputs good for 2000 sq. meter area to the identified 100 farmer-beneficiaries.

The R&D group is tasked to oversee the full implementation of the project following the modalities set with social preparation, techno-interventions and monitoring, among others.