Cotabato farmers get rice, corn seeds, banana plantlets

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Up to 618 Muslim and Christian farmers, among them former members of local armed groups, each got over the weekend hybrid corn seeds, fertilizers and other farm inputs from the Cotabato provincial government.

Major Gen. Alex Rillera, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said on Sunday that the outreach activity of the office of Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Taliño Mendoza that benefited residents of Libungan complemented the efforts of their mayor, Engineer Angel Rose Cua, and the 6th ID to increase their earnings as part of a domestic peace and security initiative.

Besides providing farmers in Libungan with P1.4 million worth of rice and corn seeds on Saturday, the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist under Mendoza also distributed to each beneficiary 1,000 tissue-cultured Lacatan variety banana plantlets that they can propagate in their farms.

Livestock technicians from Mendoza’s office had earlier vaccinated against diseases the farm animals of farmers in remote areas in Libungan and nearby towns.

Mendoza said their efforts to empower the agriculture sector in the province is parallel with their inter-agency, multi-sector thrusts on ensuring the sustainability of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, or MSMEs, in all 17 towns in Cotabato and the more than 40 barangays in its capital, Kidapawan City.

"All of these are parts of a broader peace and socio-economic campaign for sustainable development to spread around," Mendoza pointed out.

The 6th ID, the league of mayors in Cotabato and the RDC 12 are cooperating on peacebuilding programs meant to hasten the reintegration to mainstream society of former members the New People’s Army, the Dawlah Islamiya and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters who had pledged allegiance to the government.

“Diplomacy is what we use to have them renounce their membership with these groups. After they surrender, the 6th ID, the RDC 12 and the LGUs in areas under our jurisdiction extend to them the support they need to become productive farmers, fishermen and entrepreneurs,” Rillera said.