ARMM, UN agency launch corn farming project

COTABATO CITY, Philippines --- Hundreds of ethnic Maguindanaon peasants stand to benefit from a 300-hectare joint corn farming project of the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) and the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Makmod Mending Jr., ARMM’s regional agriculture and fisheries secretary, said the project will cover 300 hectares of arable lands in the adjoining Barangays Sefaran and Kurintem, both in Maguindanao’s nearby Datu Odin Sinsuat town.

“This WFP-assisted project is another `vote of confidence’ to the ARMM regional leadership,” Mending said.

Mending and WFP’s representative to the Philippines, Aomo Asaka Nyangara, signed on Tuesday a memorandum of agreement (MOA) outlining the details of the corn farming project.

Mending said 300 Moro farmers will be involved in the agricultural venture.

The MOA also detailed how the ARMM’s agriculture department and the WFP are to implement the corn farming project.

Mending and Nyangara signed the MOA in the presence of Ceasar Galvan of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Office (UNFAO) and WFP’s personnel based in Cotabato City.

The signing of the document was capped off by the distribution to 33 different farmers’ organizations in Maguindanao of P2-million worth of post-harvest facilities which the UNFAO helped put up.