Working with the Local Government Unit (LGU) amid the Enhanced Community Quarantine, Ramon Cordon Farmers Multi-purpose Cooperative (RAMFARMCO), proponent group of the PRDP-funded Tilapia Production and Marketing Enterprise distributed 40 cavans of rice to 9 barangays in Ramon and Cordon, Isabela.

“The cooperative used their 60% per kilo incentive in selling harvested palay to the National Food Authority (NFA). They requested that it will be given to them in the form of milled-rice. They were able to get 40 cavans,” Mr. Nilo Aquino, I-REAP Business Development Officer said.

Instead of getting the money up and above their sales as income of the cooperative, the officers and members have decided to distribute this instead to the residents in  9 barangays, heavily affected by the quarantine.

“They are going to distribute the 40 cavans to less fortunate families, in tandem with the LGU,” Ms. Rosario Paccarangan, RPCO 2 I-REAP Component said.

“The cooperative, with the initiative of the officers, has shifted into the humanitarian mode as the whole world fights COVID 19,” she added.

Tilapia Production and Marketing Enterprise was visited by the World Bank Task Team last November 2019.

Meanwhile, the enterprise is in its 2^nd Production Cycle of Tilapia Grown-out production and harvest will be this April. (Ferdinand N Cortez, RPCO2 InfoACE Unit)