Maranaw farmers benefit from P10.8-M farm equipment

LANAO DEL SUR, Philippines - Peasant Gaafar Dorowan, 64, is optimistic farmers in the province will have bumper harvests in the coming cropping seasons as a result of government interventions meant to improve their productivity.

“My neighbors also think the same way. We have enough motivation and we’re enjoying government support to increase our rice and corn harvests,” Dorowan said.

Dorowan is one of 4,008 ethnic Maranaw farmers from different towns in Lanao del Sur present in an agricultural forum over the weekend in Marawi City.

The event was capped off with the dispersal of P10.8 million worth of farm machinery to Maranaw farmers by the agriculture department of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and the Anak Mindanao (AMIN) Partylist.

The forum was jointly presided over by provincial officials, ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman and his regional agriculture secretary, Makmod Mending, Jr., and AMIN Rep. Sitti Djalia Turabin-Hataman.

Another ethnic Maranaw farmer, 40-year-old Melikado Sumirang, said the forum provided them insights that encouraged them to work hard for Lanao del Sur to become a major agricultural hub in the ARMM.

Rep. Hataman had told participants to the forum that the ARMM, which covers Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur in mainland Mindanao, and the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, contributes at least 43 percent to the country’s yearly agricultural output.

She said the ARMM has a 32 percent share in the annual national fishery harvests.

Rep. Hataman said farmers in the autonomous region supplies 40 percent of the country’s yearly food requirements.

Mending, who is secretary of the ARMM’s Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF) for almost two years now, said the P10.8 million worth farm machinery they distributed to Maranaw farmers was part of the government’s Agri-Pinoy Program, which aims to empower Filipino farming communities.

The equipment package was comprised of 10 rice threshers, 21 units of rice cutters and a combine-type harvester and knapsack sprayers.

Mending said they also distributed 2,599 bags of rice seeds and 1,535 bags of corn seeds to the forum participants.

Also present in the forum were officials of the ARMM’s Cooperatives Development Authority led by its regional administrator Abdulrashid Ladayo Sr.

Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong Jr., who helped organize the event, said the assistance extended by DAF-ARMM and the AMIN Partylist to his constituents complements the Mindanao peace process, which is focused on restoring normalcy in areas affected by conflicts in decades past.

He said the Lanao del Sur local government is thankful to the ARMM for providing Maranaw farmers with continuing support needed to increase their harvests through agricultural and public works thrusts.