Modern equipment makes farming fun for Leyte farmers

By JOSE ALSMITH L. SORIA
June 12, 2025

BATO, Leyte – Farming is now easy and fun for a group of farmers from this town who recently received various modern farm machineries and equipment from the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).

With the four units of earth ground auger drill machine provided to the Barangay Anahawan Farmer Agriculture Cooperative (BAFAC), Dionesio Butlig Jr., BAFAC chairman, shared that digging holes is now easy and fast compared to the traditional way using bolo or shovel.

Aside from earth ground auger drill machines, DAR also provided BAFAC five backpack sprayer and one unit each of poly disk plough, adjustable disk harrow, hand tractor multifunctional tiller and cultivator, corn sheller, and a delivery truck.

These farm machineries and equipment were formally turned over to them by DAR Eastern Visayas Regional Director, Atty. Robert Anthony Yu, in a simple ceremony last week. He was assisted by Leyte Provincial Agrarian Reform Program Officer (PARPO), Atty. Daniel Pen.

Agriculture is among the sectors being prioritize by the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., and provision of modern farm equipment to agrarian reform beneficiaries organizations (ARBOs) is among the nine point agenda of DAR Secretary Conrado Estrella III, said Yu.

Butlig, in his message, expressed gratitude to the President and Secretary Estrella for the three million-peso worth of assistance which their organization received under DAR's Sustainable and Resilient Agrarian Reform Community (SuRe ARC) Project. According to him, it would be easy for them now to deliver their harvests to Bontoc (Southern Leyte), where they usually sell their products.

BAFAC, which is into corn and peanut production, has 130 members wherein 59 of them are agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs).