PRESIDENTIAL aspirant Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. and vice presidential bet Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte have vowed to boost Mindanao’s capacity to become the country’s food basket.
The move will boost food security in the country while helping the region recover from the economic devastation from the Covid-19 pandemic, the tandem said in a statement.
Mindanao, according to the Marcos-Duterte tandem — dubbed BBM-Sara Uniteam — must be at the forefront of the country’s agricultural trade because one-third of its land area is devoted to agriculture.
Even though parts of Mindanao count among the poorest in the country, the island is very rich in natural resources. “Thus it is but right that we strengthen its capacity to become the country’s food basket,” said the duo, which has topped presidential and vice presidential nationwide formal and informal surveys.
Mindanao has long been deemed the strategic food basket of the Philippines, currently producing 40 percent of the country’s food needs and contributing more than 30 percent to national food trade.
The BBM-Sara Uniteam cited Bukidnon, a well-known food source in northern Mindanao because it is a major producer of rice, corn and sugarcane in the country.
“Mindanao is known as among the top producers of palay, corn, bananas, cacao and coconut. If we can just focus more on this and strengthen production, Mindanao will undoubtedly rise again,” the pair said..
They added that Mindanao also has great potential to strengthen the country’s export industry.
“Instead of importing so many products from rich countries, we should be exporting to them because the potential of our agricultural land in Mindanao is really huge,” the BBM-Sara Uniteam said.