TANAY, Rizal - An agricultural park will
soon rise in this lakeside town.
Complete with technology demonstration facilities and a
nursery for medicinal and herbal plants and sweet sorghum, the agricultural park
will be developed in the hillylands of barangay Cuyambay with funding support
from the Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Agricultural Research (DA-BAR).
Another DA agency, the Bureau of Soils and Water Management (BSWM),
is spearheading the development of the 30-hectare land donated by the Tanay
local government unit for the project.
A team of BAR's Technology Commercialization that, together
with staff members of other DA-attached agencies and offices involved in the
project for the promotion of DA banner programs, visited the place recently for
site validation.
"We expect to complete the center by 2010," said BSWM
Assistant Director Wilfredo Cabezon, referring to the proposed research,
demonstration, and training center envisioned by the bureau to be set up in
Tanay's hillylands.
The center, which will double as agricultural park, will
showcase the assortment of technologies on agriculture and fisheries promoted by
DA, thereby enhancing agro-biodiversity and agri-ocetourism.
"It will also promote a public-private partnership in undertaking research
and demonstration and build farmers' capacity to establish conservation farms
through participatory approach of learning by doing," BSWM stressed.
