No budget for more produce tramlines

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu City agriculture department has failed to achieve its goal to provide the farmers in the city’s mountain barangays with two additional tramlines allowing them to transport their harvest from their farms to the market.

 City Agriculturist Julito Baclayon said the Bureau of Soil Management, a national government office, had turned down the request to grant the farmers in the city’s mountain barangays the said projects, worth P4 million, because of lack of funds.

Baclayon, however, said he will continue to request the officials of the Bureau of Soil Management to help the farmers in the city’s mountain barangays avail of such tramlines.

At present there are two tramlines that are already operating in Barangays Tabunan and Sudlon 2 that helps close to 100 farmers in bringing their crops down from their farms to the nearest farm-to-market roads.

A tramline is a bar or pair of parallel bars of rolled steel used as railway that are installed from the elevated part of the mountain along which cable cars carrying farm crops can be brought down.

The tramline in Barangay Tabunan has a length of 850 linear meters, while the one in Sudlon 2 is about 730 meters long.  These two projects cost the national government P3.7 million.

The tramline can carry 250 kilos of produce at one time and it is powered by motors that are under the care of the farmers’ association in those barangays.

The existing tramlines were granted to the farmers by the national government through the Bureau of Post Harvest Research and Extension.

Baclayon said the two additional tramlines that they are requesting from the Bureau of Soil Management are intended to benefit the farmers in Barangays Taptap, Adlawon and Tagbao.

In yesterday’s press briefing in City Hall, Baclayon claimed that despite the fact that the budget for his department was reduced in 2012, he still accomplished almost all of his programs with the help of the private sector.

For 2012, Baclayon originally proposed a P38 million budget for his department but the amount was first reduced by the Local Finance Committee, and when the reduced budget was endorsed to the City Council, it was again slashed to only P13 million.

Baclayon said he submitted P40 million budget for his department for 2013, but the members of the Local Finance Committee who drafted the budget again slashed the amount to only P13 million and the City Council only granted them P9 million.

Mayor Michael Rama commended Baclayon saying even if his budget was reduced by the Local Finance Committee and City Council, he was still able to do his tasks.   (FREEMAN)