SMALL infrastructure they may be, but roads connecting farms to the market in the countryside are an important lifeblood for the country’s poor, many of them still wallowing in poverty due to isolation and inaccessibility to social services.
In highly rural Bangsamoro region (two provinces in Central Mindanao, three provinces in the southwesternmost tip of Mindanao, considered the country’s southern backdoor), the dire need to connect farms to the population centers remains to be a daunting task, constricting rural development and pinning down rural families to generational poverty.
Recognizing this, local experts on agricultural and biosystem engineering have been working to improve rural connectivity and strengthen rural development in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
In Cotabato City, the seat of the Bangsamoro Region, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Agrarian Reform (MAFAR) and the Philippine Society of Agricultural Biosystems and Engineering (PSABE) held the first summit on this issue.
The November 8 to 11 regional summit on farm-to-market roads (FMR) would connect master planning and Agricultural Biosystems and Engineering (ABE) services to the region.
Agriculture Minister Mohammad Yacob said ABE “is crucial in the BARMM in the implementation of several agricultural legislation in the country.”
The application to the BARMM would be much awaited in the implementation of the Philippine Agricultural and Biosystems Engineers Competitiveness Road Map, Republic Act No. 10601 or the Agricultural and Fisheries Mechanization Law, RA 8559 or the Philippine Agricultural Engineering Act of 1998, and RA 10915 or An Act Strengthening, Modernizing and Aligning the Practice of Agricultural Engineering in the Country into the Internationally Recognized Practice of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, and for other Purposes.
PSABE is an accredited integrated engineering professional organization for agricultural and biosystems engineers in the country.
The summit carried the theme “Uplifting Agriculture and Biosystems Engineering Profession in the Bangsamoro Region,” which aimed to provide the local agricultural and biosystem engineers with comprehensive up-to-date information and develop a shared understanding of the agricultural and biosystem engineering profession in the Bangsamoro region.
Noble task
YACOB said “the strong partnership of PSABE-BARMM with the academe, public and private sectors is highly imperative to carry this humongous yet noble task.”
He said PSABE’s current special focus could bring a lot of promise and development as local experts try to unravel and understand the application of engineering, science and design “to create solutions for problems concerning land development, irrigation and drainage, including dams, farm roads and bridges.”
This would be done in a region that is also regularly visited by flood, destroying farm roads and bridges along the way, and blocking rehabilitation for days and trapping families in the low-lying and inaccessible villages.
MPW’s role
ONLY lately, the Ministry of Public Works (MPW) mobilized its heavy equipment and personnel to clear the roads affected by massive flooding and landslides after Severe Tropical Storm Paeng hit the region last month.
Several roads and bridges in some parts of the Bangsamoro region had to be closed due to soil erosion and flash floods.
According to Public Works Minister Eduard Guerra, their team has to clear debris that blocked some parts of road networks, and declog drainages immediately after the rain and flood subsided to ensure that roads are accessible and that fast delivery of relief goods will not be hampered.
Tropical Storm Paeng alone, for instance, wrought this long list of damage compiled by the Department of Public Works and Highways-Bureau of Maintenance (DPWH-BOM) as of October 30:
1. Davao-Cotabato Road, K1710+760, Buluan Bridge I, Barangay Manuangan, Pigcawayan, Cotabato due to flooding;
2. Maguindanao 1st DEO Cotabato-Lanao Road, K1878 + 359, Nituan Bridge, Parang, Maguindanao del Norte due to collapsed bridge approach;
3. Ledepan Bridge, Highway Tamontaka-Jct Tapian Wharf Road, Brgy. Badak, Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte due to collapsed bridge;
4. Tamontaka-Jct Tapian Wharf Road, K1857+000, Brgy. Badak, Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte due to soil erosion;
5. Simuay Landasan-Parang Road, Tapayan Bridge, K1869 + 224, Sultan Mastura, Maguindanao del Norte due to destroyed bridge approach; and
6. Maguindanao 2nd DEO Marbel-Allah Valley-Cotabato Road, K1796 + 125, Kabulnan Bridge, Brgy. Labu-Labu, Datu Hoffer, Maguindanao del Norte due to scoured bridge.
The ministry has also deployed a multipurpose amphibious dredger to clear the accumulating water hyacinths along Rio Grande de Mindanao in Cotabato City.
“In times of calamities like this, MPW is doing its best to help alleviate the situation. We utilize our people and our equipment para matulungan ang mga nangangailangan nating constituents,” Guerra said.
GIDA
IN normal times, a simple and short farm road project is an investment into the future and a road to hope for residents in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas (GIDA).
Last month, the BARMM engineers were finishing a short FMR project: a 0.6-kilometer road that needs concreting and a bridge. The P41.66-million project was being constructed in Lumbayanague, Lanao del Sur, a lakeside town 43 kilometers south of Marawi City.
The MPW started constructing the bridge and rehabilitating the road in late October. Lanao del Sur District Engineer Maldamin Decampong said Lumbayanague is a fourth-class municipality “where most of its farmland areas produce corn and rice products.”
The farm road connects the inner barangays going to the national highway and provides farmers the opportunity to access transportation and prevent spoilage of their farm products. The project was “to enhance the living condition of the poverty-stricken communities in the region.”
“These projects are ways of showing our local government units and communities the goodwill of the BARMM government in implementing moral governance and in relation to the 12-point agenda of the Chief Minister Ahod Ebrahim, in increasing strategic infrastructure to develop our communities, particularly in the remote areas,” said MPW Deputy Minister Engr. Abdul Maomit Tomawis.
Lumbayanague Mayor Jamal Asum thanked the Bangsamoro government “for providing us with these essential and beneficial projects for our constituents, which, I believe, could bring change to the lives of our people.”
It’s also the same story for another short road project to connect the farms of the upland village of Labungan in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte, the town where a mudslide buried some residents last month.
This farm road that stretches only 4.6 kilometers was expected to be finished last month with a budget of P69,492,196.6.
MAFAR Minister Yacob said the road would “stimulate the grassroots economy and empower farmers to experience development and better living in the future.”
“This project will change your life as a farmer. It will transform this rural community…it will help gain better prices and reduce the risk of products lost which will lead to better farmer’s life,” Yacob said.
MAFAR Director for Agriculture Services Engr. Ismael Guiamel said, “This FMR could give various benefits to our farmers such as easy access to their farm products, low cost of transportation, and increase their profits which, eventually, could alleviate their living conditions.”
Barangay Chairman Murad Campong also expressed gratitude for the concreted roads that would connect the farmland to the main road going to market. “I really believed that development in remote areas will be very difficult to meet unless there is an access like roads,” Campong said.
Farm roads with similar immediate economic benefits include the P42.4-million farm road in Simunul, Tawi-Tawi, to make it easy for farmers in Panglima Mastul village in Simunul, Tawi-Tawi, to transport and deliver their agriculture products to the markets.
The project was funded by the Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP).
MAFAR said Simunul is one of the top cassava-producing municipalities in the province of Tawi-Tawi due to its fertile soil, particularly in the barangay where the road project was completed. Previously, farmers had difficulty bringing their products to the markets due to rough and muddy roads, especially during rainy seasons. This discouraged them from farming as their products end up rotting in storage.
Island connectivity
THE southernmost island province of Tawi-Tawi has been eyed as a gateway for economic development, but like its mainland counterpart provinces, the blueprint for development has also been plagued with issues of lack of inter-island or inter-municipality transportation system.
Aside from that, there were also issues on limited access to potable water supply, limited power supply, poor Internet connectivity, inadequate infrastructure facilities, rise in seawater level and temperature, food security, poor waste disposal, presence of human trafficking, inadequate school and sports facilities, and insufficient medical and diagnostic laboratory centers.
The BARMM would not be stymied, though. It said the strategic location and potential of the Tawi-Tawi island for the economic development of the autonomous region would be included in formulating the 2nd Bangsamoro Development Plan (BDP) for 2023-2028. The formulation was done on October 11.
According to Engr. Wahab Bakil, Tawi-Tawi Provincial Planning and Development Coordinator (PPDC), the country’s southernmost island was “essential” to the Bangsamoro region, citing Tawi-Tawi’s potential to become the region’s gateway to Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East Asean Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA).”
The BIMP-EAGA is an initiative launched in 1994 which aims to boost growth in trade, investments, and tourism through new intra-region shipping routes and air links as well as power interconnection projects. It also includes cooperation on agri-business, tourism, environment, and socio-cultural education, among these regions.
“We will bring Tawi-Tawi as the gateway of BARMM, if not the whole of Mindanao, to the whole BIMP-EAGA,” said Bakil, who led the participating local government unit (LGU) representatives from the 11 municipalities.
Some of the identified opportunities and potentials of the island were the following: Tawi-Tawi’s strategic location to be developed as an economic zone and gateway to BIMP-EAGA; Tawi-Tawi as a cross-border trading hub of the region; eco-tourism industry; rich aquatic resources; and seaweeds and fish processing industry, as Tawi-Tawi is known to be the largest seaweed producer in the country.
Improving security
AN attendant benefit to all the farm road constructions across BARMM is securing the peace and improving the security of the region, many areas of which were the battlegrounds of Moro fighters and government troops in the past.
Sulu province could be the example, as Joint Task Force Sulu commanding general Brig. Gen. Ignatius Patrimonio of the Army’s 11th Infantry Division told BARMM key officials on October 13 of the improving peace and security situation in the island province of Sulu.
Among the things cited for the effective and continuing military operation in Sulu were the increasing number of road networks facilitating easy and faster movement of troops.
“This network is a manifestation that there is no problem in the team that can’t be solved if we work together towards peace and development. Military operations alone are not the only solution but the responsive partnerships with communities, LGUs and security sectors is indeed the solution to the long issue of terrorism,” said Patrimonio.
He said Sulu’s current security landscape is now “manageable “ as manifested by the diminished level of atrocities due to the decreasing number of Abu Sayyaf Group extremists who surrendered along with their firearms.
Bangsamoro Chief Minister Ahod Ebrahim acknowledged JTF Sulu’s contribution in sustaining the gains of the peace process, saying, “the joint normalization initiatives of the Philippine government and the Bangsamoro government are making significant progress and accomplishment as we continue to fight for autonomy and decent governance.”
“We thank the contribution of JTF Sulu for their assistance in making this a reality,” Ebrahim expressed. “I hope that this visit will give rise to more meaningful and humble endeavors during my leadership. I express my commitment to work together and the Government of the Day to support your future initiatives in the name of peace, reconciliation and development,” Ebrahim added.
Image credits: Bangsamoro Information Office, Manuel T. Cayon