DAVAO CITY—Agriculture production areas in Mindanao have been prepped up to provide a continuous supply of basic food items to quarantined cities and capital towns of Mindanao and beyond, while local governments have asked the national task force on Covid-19 to relax strict quarantine protocols in agricultural areas.
Mindanao regions such as the Caraga Region in the northeast and Soccsksargen Region in central south are given various forms of support, including seeds, farm inputs and financial assistance. Beneficiaries are mostly hard-up farmers and their families.
Livestock and crops such as vegetables and corn, which are considered secondary products of the province, have also been given ample support in terms of research, marketing and a wider area for planting.
The Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA), the government’s socioeconomic planning unit for this southern Philippine island, has pushed this program as one of the key initiatives for recovery in Mindanao in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The regions
In the first quarter of the year, all economic activities, including the wide areas of agriculture, were at a standstill due to the quarantine restrictions imposed by the various local government units (LGUs).
As food became scarce due to dwindling supplies, authorities eventually allowed the unrestricted passage of trucks and vehicles carrying vegetables, crops and meat from the production areas. The restriction on the movement of produce from farm to market was also lifted.
In Agusan del Sur in the Caraga Region, the Department of Agriculture (DA) Regional Office provided rice seeds and fertilizer subsidies to farmers in time for the wet cropping season. Considered as the region’s rice-producing province, Agusan del Sur was allocated P125.8 million, or 60 percent, of the P207-million Rice Resiliency Project budget of the region.
This move is seen to increase local rice production through the use of high-quality seeds and fertilizer given to an estimated 30,000 rice farmers covering 32,277 hectares.
The regional DA office also allocated P7.4 million under its Expanded SURE Aid Fund as cash assistance to 296 farmers and fishermen whose incomes were badly affected by the enhanced community quarantine since the early phase of the lockdown.
The farmers and fishermen came from the municipalities of Las Nieves, Nasipit, Buenavista and Cabadbaran City, Agusan del Norte, and Bayugan City, Agusan del Sur. The financial assistance was released by Baug Carp Beneficiaries Multipurpose Cooperative and the Bayugan Achievers Multipurpose Cooperative as partner conduits.
Sustained food production
OFFICER-IN-CHARGE Assistant Regional Director for Operations Rebecca Atega said the government wanted to ensure sustained food production despite the challenges and restrictions of the pandemic.
The rice hybridization program started two years ago in 2018, when hybrid seeds used by the farmers increased production by 17.11 percent in 2019, indicating the adaptability of hybrid seeds in the farms. The barangays of Lemon, Basag and Ampayon in Butuan City were chosen as the technology demonstration sites, covering 100 hectares.
The demonstration farm program would be supported by the SL Agritech Corp., SeedWorks, Bioseed, Ramgo, Bayer, Pioneer, Syngenta, Advanta and LongPing, alongside the DA-Philippine Rice Research Institute (DA-PhilRice) and Phil-Sino Center for Agricultural Technology (PhilSCAT).
“As the country transitions to the so-called new normal, the Department of Agriculture-Caraga continues to come up with different interventions and advocacies to promote a sustainable and secure food production through the Plant Plant Plant program,” said Director Abel James I. Monteagudo.
Other interventions include the distribution of various vegetable seedlings and seeds given to nonfarmers who want to have their own vegetable gardens. Just in the first week since the program was introduced, no less than 200 individuals have availed themselves of this assistance.
In addition to vegetables, the DA-Caraga promoted backyard corn production and launched the Project Maisan sa Nataran, or Pro-Mais, as the latest addition to the integrated and diversified home food production program.
Corn has its health benefits, such as controlling diabetes, preventing heart ailment, and lowering of hypertension. Through the project, individuals who have available area of at least 100 square meters and were willing to plant corn were given one-fourth kilo corn seeds.
To further encourage people to patronize corn, free tasting of rice-corn blend—or cooked rice mixed with corn—was also conducted. To complement this food production initiative, the Organic Agriculture (OA) program also handed out organic concoctions that the people could use and apply on their vegetables to ensure these would be safe for them and their families to consume.
The World Bank-funded Philippine Rural Development Program also saw the construction of the warehouse, seedling production building and seedbed for rubber tree growers. This infrastructure support amounting to P8.4 million further re-energized the farming sector in the Caraga Region.
The collaboration between the regional DA, Department of Public Works and Highways and the various LGUs in Caraga made possible the completion of 121 farm roads costing P1.9 billion. From 2015 to 2019, a total of 185.6 kilometers of farm roads was constructed in the region.
Other initiatives included the turnover of 50 head of cattle to backyard raisers in Agusan del Norte, vegetable production by the Soccsksargen Police Regional Office, turnover of P3.7 million worth of farm inputs and tools to the farmers of Makilala and Tulunan towns in North Cotabato, and turnover of 100 bags of conventional hybrid corn seeds, 2,664 packs of pinakbet seeds, 276 kilos of mungbean seeds, 200 bags of inorganic fertilizers, 70 rolls of laminated sacks, 76 rolls of high-density polyethylene pipes and 150 units of water plastic drums at Sitio Flortam, Barangay Batasan, Makilala.
Self-reliance
MinDA Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol has encouraged LGUs in Mindanao to be self-reliant, “as the country grapples with the effects of Covid-19.”
Piñol believes “that in order to restart the economy and bolster socioeconomic development in the island-region, every local government unit should rely on their own concerted efforts and abilities in this time of recovery since the national government, on the other hand, has been devoting its resources to the ongoing fight against the pandemic.”
“LGUs cannot expect a lot from the national government. The national government has no funds now. In fact, the funds of agencies have been sequestered [for Covid response]. So, there’s not much money to talk about right now,” Piñol said in a mix of English and Filipino, noting that majority of government funds were realigned to combat the pandemic.
He said MinDA must refocus its programs to help the economy regain its momentum once again and yield concrete results “that will be felt on the ground despite the presence of financial difficulties and limitations.”
Addressing his management team, he said: “Our objective is to really restart the economy of Mindanao. Here’s what we should consider in prioritizing our programs: what program will have immediate effect that can quickly benefit our people and restart the economy,” he said.
While efforts for economic restoration remain under way, he said it is also the right time for LGUs “to unleash their individual coping mechanisms and maximize resources under the new normal.”
“So, whatever we do in Mindanao right now will be guided by the philosophy of self-reliance. We will have to encourage LGUs to really invest,” Piñol added.
In his recent visits to Impasugong, Talakag, Sumilao and Lantapan (Imtasula) in Bukidnon, he urged the mayors to look for ways to prop up their local economies.
“You buy equipment. Don’t be scared to borrow. Buy the needed equipment because you have to build your own roads right now.”
Among the Covid-19 response programs that MinDA is actively taking on are the Balik Probinsya, Bagong Pag-asa BP2 program, Sustainable Agriculture Project for Imtasula areas and MinDA Tienda.
It has also started to validate the different fish center sites to double Mindanao’s current aquaculture and fisheries production of two million metric tons annually by year 2025.
“With a coastline length of 36,289 kilometers, the fifth-longest in the world, and surrounded by seas and ocean, it is unthinkable that the Philippines still imports fish from countries whose fishermen could be fishing in our waters,” he said.
Piñol also asked local chief executives to urge lawmakers to review the rice importation law, Republic Act 11203, saying that farm-gate prices of palay had dropped from P22 a kilo two years ago to just P11 per kilo in many areas of the region during harvest season.
He reported also that the municipality of Kalawit in Zamboanga del Norte has earmarked a 200-hectare plantation area for the first 200 families coming home from Metro Manila under the BP2 program.
MinDA already turned over on August 18 a P500,000 support fund for the survey of the proposed BP2 site.
The province will give each family a house and the whole community of returning families will work as one in undertaking agricultural production.
“In contrast, the Kauswagan Model has a compact area of 6.3 hectares where the beneficiaries will undertake organic chicken and vegetable production,” he said.
This week, Piñol suggested that grains storage complexes with modern dryers and silos be established in at least four corn-producing regions of Mindanao to ensure food security on the island and propel the economy adversely affected by the pandemic.
“This problem is not new. As a farm boy who grew up among rice and corn farmers, I saw the frustration and disappointment in my late father and other farmers’ faces when their earnings after four months fell way below what they had expected. This trapped them in an endless cycle of poverty where they borrowed money to plant and paid back with what they harvested, oftentimes leaving them in deep debt,” Piñol stressed.
He likewise discussed the measures which are the salient features of the Mindanao Corn Development Program that MinDA is crafting, and which will be submitted as a priority project for inclusion in the Mindanao Peace and Development Program, or Rise Mindanao.
Image credits: Teoderico Decierdo | Dreamstime.com, Hugo Maes | Dreamstime.com, minda.gov.ph, Jamesbox | Dreamstime.com