Siquijor woman farmer bags national award

A WOMAN farmer from Siquijor province bagged third in the national 2011 Rural Women Award.

A report from the Siquijor Provincial Agriculture says Martina Tumala-Inapan, 53, from barangay Cansayang, San Juan, Siquijor, has been into diversified and integrated farming system since this was introduced to her a few years back.

She is one of the five exceptional women in the country awarded as most Outstanding Rural Women by the Department of Agriculture (DA), Philippine Commission on Women and other members of the Inter-Agency Committee on Rural Women.

Inapan received P20,000 cash prize and a citation from the DA Gender and Development Focal System and the Inter-agency Committee on Rural Women.

The search for outstanding rural women aims torecognize rural women with exceptional abilities and contributions particularly in the fields of farming and fishing that uplift the lives of the people in the community.

Martina is a wife of retired military officer and a mother of five. All of them are involved in farming. She works from dawn to dusk to augment her husband’s meager income.

With the one-hectare lot she inherited from her parents, Martina slowly transformed the once rocky soil into a productive rice farm.