Batac: The three-day Farmers' Festival in this city opened on Friday with a Thanksgiving Mass, agricultural fair, and farm machinery distribution, empowering farmers to increase their income through mechanization and better access to a wider market. From five days, the festival is shortened to three days this year due to the current energy emergency. The city government made sure, however, that key activities of the celebration are sustained.

According to Philippines News Agency, "Today marks the opening of a celebration that honors the heart of our community, our hardworking farmers," Mayor Mark Christian Chua said as he led the distribution of farm machinery to registered farmers' organisations in front of the Imelda Cultural Center. "This is one way of celebrating their contributions to the society as 80 percent of workers in Batac are agriculture-related," he added.

On top of the national government's support program for farmers and fisherfolk, Batac has been allocating over PHP100 million for farm mechanization to help reduce the cost of production and maintain quality products. Aside from distributing farm machinery, the city government is also giving hybrid and certified rice seeds, fertilizers, vegetable seeds, and micronutrients for soil conditioning. It will cover all registered farmers under the Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture.

Among the featured activities this year are the growing of bamboo in 30 villages, bike challenge, agri quiz bee, Vegetable Olympics featuring high-value crops demonstration, Rural Improvement Club's shake-up and vegetable salad-making contest, and revival of 'Laro ng Lahi' (traditional games), such as tug of war, palo sebo, kadang-kadang, sack race, and bottle relay. The grand parade, which is among the most anticipated parts of the festival, is canceled this year to save on logistics.

Native delicacies such as tupig, dudol, puto, and suman, were also served to festival-goers as a way of promoting rural women's culinary skills and creativity in food preparation. The festivities will culminate on May 3 with a dance showdown involving farmers' organizations.