Agriculture is one
of the most important sectors in the Philippine economy since the country has
rich land and natural resources; hence, farming
has been the main industry.
Angel Perez, 52
and a farmer from Sta. Lucia, Dolores, Quezon, was
chosen to be the first president of Atimoya Farmers
Association Inc., a group
of local farmers assisted
by the government. LGUs
of Quezon and CALABARZON region supported the association and
provided free land, seeds,
and trucks for harvesting.
Since 2017, Angel has
been responsible for overseeing the 363 members
who own individual and
communal farms.
He has shown
exemplary leadership in
handling farmers with his
expertise, in which he said
he willingly and voluntarily does.
“If there are things that I can do for my co-members, I
initiate it for them as a help”, he said.
According to him, a financial institution has
helped him in expanding his farm which is why for six
years, he stayed as a loyal client of CARD Bank.
He used his loans directly as additional capital
for his farm during planting
season and was able to
acquire more seeds and
plant more crops.
Moreover, he
said that he survived the
coronavirus pandemic
which broke out in 2020
through CARD’s financial
help. With his loans, he
planted crops to meet his
needs and earned extra
money by supplying veggies to other areas and
provinces.
Currently, Angel gives away free rice
crops from his harvests
to his neighbors as a way
to share his blessings.
He also intends to build a
Kadiwa shop where farmers can sell their produced
crops. He does all these
good works to support the
agriculture industry and
give back to his community in any way he can.
“Agriculture is
very important. If there are
no farmers, Filipinos will
no longer have something
on their table,” Angel said.
“The decreasing number
of agricultural workers
is shaking our country.
I’m hopeful that the next
generation will continue
farming and will view it as
a decent job rather than
looking down on our hard
working farmers,” he added.
