The Provincial Government of Bohol (PGBh) through the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist (OPA) will conduct two Ubi Festivals this year.
This developed after the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) of Bohol passed an ordinance sponsored by 3rd District Board Member Nathaniel Binlod who is the member of the SP Committee on Agriculture declaring that the Ubi Festival be conducted on every second week of December of the year.
This could be the first ever that in a year there would be two festivals to be conducted as the first one was done last January 26-30, 2023 at the Old Tagbilaran City Airport, this city.
The passage of the ordinance superseding the SP resolution mandating that the Ubi Fest be conducted on every 3rd week of January of the year is an offshoot of the assessment that was conducted after the festival of which BM Binlod had attended and personally heard the suggestions among the Municipal Agriculturists (MAs)/Municipal Agricultural Officers (MAOs) and Ubi growers that the festival is ideally be done on every December or earlier than January because that would be the harvesting time.
They added that we could not expect volume of Ubi products to be displayed on January Festival considering that during the yuletide season Ubi product is highly demanded in the market.
During the Sandugo Agri-Fair preparatory meeting last Thursday held at the Panda Tea Suite and Garden, Dao, Tagbilaran City, Provincial Agriculturist Liza M. Quirog informed the MAs/MAOs, and the representatives from agri-line agencies that we will be adopting the real essence of a festival this coming December that there would be Ubi Street Dancing, Miss Ubi among others which still to be crafted by the Technical Working Group (TWG) from OPA.
Quirog said that they will ask additional fund in the amount of P1M aside from the allocation of P2M as stipulated in the ordinance to entice more Municipal Local Government Units (MLGUs) to participate.
The usual allocation as mandated in the resolution is only more than P700, 000 in the whole duration of the fest.
The provincial agriculturist said that the formal letter will be sent to the MLGUs the soonest possible time informing them about the development so as to prepare necessary supplemental budget purposely needed on that activity.
Ubi Festival is an annual affair of the PGBh through the OPA as the way of giving gratitude, honor and awards among Boholano farmers who are responsible for the development of Ubi industry in Bohol. (Atoy Cosap)