Farmers' groups in North Cotabato now suppliers of UN agency

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines  – Farmers in North Cotabato are now proud suppliers of high quality rice and corn seeds to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.

Members of the Carmen Agricultural Resources Development–Producers Cooperative (CARD-PC), and the Nagkakaisang Samahan ng mga Magsasaka ng Mal-Mar, (Nagkasama), began supplying the FAO with rice and corn seeds in late 2013.

Mal-Mar is an acronym for “Malitubog-and-Maridagao Area,” a fertile plateau located at the border of North Cotabato and Maguindanao.

The Mal-Mar Area has vast tracts of irrigated rice farms, some of them owned by active members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Mokamad Bituanan, chairman of the CARD-PC, said it was for the support -- such as capacity-building interventions, and infrastructures and agricultural packages --- from foreign benefactors, the Department of Agriculture, and the office of North Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza that they have become capable of supplying rice and corn seeds to a vaunted entity of the United Nations.

The figurehead of Nagkasama, Abdulwahid Yunos, said they began by supplying rice and corn seeds first to Mindoro, to Roxas City, and to other parts of mainland Mindanao before they entered into supply agreements with FAO.

Bituanan and Yunos are optimistic the production of rice and corn seeds by Moro and Christian peasants in North Cotabato will increase by several folds in the coming months owing to the improving security situation in the province.

The North Cotabato provincial government and DA’s regional office in Region 12 have recently turned over two rice mills to members of the two farmers’ organizations, built to improve the farmers' productivity.

The facilities, one constructed in Barangay Nasapian, and the other in Gen. Luna District, both in the municipality of Carmen, were jointly built by the office of Mendoza, the DA, and the World Bank.

Mendoza and representatives from DA led the turn over early this week of the two rice mills to beneficiary farmers.

Mendoza lauded the feat of the two farmers’ group in building linkage with FAO.

“That’s an indication that our farmers have indeed become globally competitive,” Mendoza said.