Kidapawan rubber farm gets foreign grant

LOS BAÑOS, Laguna – A Japan-based international agency has provided a financial grant to help underwrite the establishment of a rattan plantation in Mindanao.

The plantation will be set up at a government experimental forest in Kidapawan City, North Cotabato, with the support of the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO).

Based in Yokohama, ITTO is a commodity organization that brings together countries producing and consuming tropical timber to discuss and exchange information and develop policies on all aspects of the world tropical timber economy.

The grant for the establishment and management of the rattan plantation in Kidapawan City was provided by ITTO to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Ecosystem Research and Development Services (DENR-ERDS) in Region 12 (Central Mindanao), said DENR regional executive director Jim Sampulna.

The Los Baños-based DENR Ecosystems Research and Development Bureau headed by director Marcial Amaro Jr. facilitated the grant.

Dr. Bighani Manipula, acting regional technical director for research of DENR-Region 12, said the project will showcase the rattan seedling technology developed by the research sector and will employ the community-based approach in managing the plantation.

Immediate stakeholders will be tapped as partners in developing, managing and protecting the plantation instead of just treating them as “resource users and beneficiaries,” Manipula said.

As an initial activity, the project management team recently met with the local community to brief them on the project.

The stakeholders will also be taught about rattan production – from seed harvesting to nursery management and plantation development.

The project is expected to enhance and rehabilitate the 30-hectare teak and rubber plantation that the DENR-ERDS put up in 1985.