Leni bats for farmer support in visit to Ecija agri lands

A group of farmers in Villasis town in Pangasinan province harvests palay using a mechanized harvester. —WILLIE LOMIBAO

SAN JOSE CITY—Vice President Leni Robredo said the government should help create the conditions that would make farming a rewarding endeavor and keep farmers in the field.

Robredo on Tuesday visited onion farms in the villages of Kaliwanagan, Villamarina and San Agustin, manned by farmers who have been supplying crops to the giant food chain, Jollibee Foods Corp., since 2008.

“Farmers are poor, not because they are lazy, but because they receive insufficient support,” she said.

Robredo said farmers had been raising their children to become professionals, not their successors in the field, which might affect food production in the future.

According to her, children of food producers suffer from malnutrition while their parents work all day for income that is too little when compared to traders’ profits.

The story of Apollo Lazaro, an onion farmer of Kaliwanagan here, caught the vice president’s attention.

Lazaro’s son passed the professional category of the civil service examination, a year after securing a teaching license. But he has not found employment.

“I spent all my life poor and I did everything I could for my family,” Lazaro said. He asked Robredo to help farmers deal with this condition. —ARMAND GALANG