BALER, Aurora -- The Departments of Agriculture (DA), Agrarian Reform (DAR) and Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) have chosen 90,721.63 hectares of agricultural forestry areas in Central Luzon as their pioneer local convergence agro-enterprise clusters (LCAECs) in the region.

DA Regional Field Unit 3 information officer Jun Espiritu said the LCAECs will be situated in Dipaculao and Dinalungan in Aurora, Orion in Bataan, Doña Remedios Trinidad, Norzagaray, San Rafael, Angat, Bustos, Baliwag, Plaridel, Pulilan, Calumpit, Paombong and Hagonoy in Bulacan, Magalang and Arayat in Pampanga, Camiling, San Clemente and Mayantoc in Tarlac, Masinloc in Zambales, Pantabangan, Rizal, and Llanera in northern Nueva Ecija, and Bongabon, Gabaldon, Laur and Palayan City in southern Nueva Ecija.

The convergence sites shall cover 157 agrarian reform community barangays and 73 non-agrarian reform community barangays with a total of 128,521 farmer beneficiaries.

DAR Regional Support Services Division chief Agrarian Reform officer Eden Ponio said that DENR will distribute various fruit and forest tree seedlings such as atis, guyabano, mango, cacao, rambutan, coffee arabica and macadamia to the beneficiaries, hold trainings on forest protection and lead mangrove rehabilitation projects.

Meanwhile, the DA shall conduct capability building trainings on organic farming, assist in the improvement of irrigation facilities and farm-to-market roads and hand out vegetable seeds, fish fingerlings and farm implements.

The three agencies are set to identify more convergence areas in the coming months.   Mamer Banez