CABARROGUIS, Quirino, May 10 (PIA) — For the third year, the municipality of Diffun has again succeeded in maintaining its Green Banner Award being the Most Outstanding Municipality in the province during Monitoring and Evaluation of Local Plan Implementation (MELPI) for nutrition for 2012.

The MELPI is a management tool used in assessing efficiency and effectiveness of programs and projects for the improvement of the nutritional status of populace.

LGU Diffun has an overall score of 94.33. It was followed by Maddela with 92.61; Saguday-92.43; Aglipay-91.10; Cabarroguis and Nagtipunan-91.01.

Tina Ramillosa, municipal nutrition officer said the improved nutritional status of the children is attributed to the different convergence programs during the “Aldaw ti Umili” (Peoples Day)-Pasadang Pangkalusugan sa Baranay initiated by the municipal leadership last year.

Under the program, the mayor served as the driver, the vice mayor as his sparing driver and the different chief of offices, line agencies, non-government organizations as passengers who brought basic and social services right at the doorstep of the Diffunians who are needing various assistance.

Ramillosa said they also conducted medical check-up and actual weighing of the children to know what intervention will be given to them.

“We also provided vegetable seeds and seedlings to the families to help them produce foods for their families,” Ramillosa said noting that insufficient food is still one of the leading causes of malnutrition in the municipality.

The nutrition officer also said that they are strictly implementing their Gulayan sa Paaralan and Barangay projects which aimed to provide organically-grown vegetables to the residents.

“Our demo farm at Luttuad is providing organically grown seeds and seedlings and the Municipal Agriculture is also conducting trainings on organic agriculture in the barangays,” Ramillosa said.

She said they plan to strengthen the program this year to ensure continuous improvement of the nutritional status of the Diffun populace.

Based on the MNC report, Diffun had 147 underweight and severely underweight in 2010 and it was reduced to 127 in 2011 and 111 in 2012.