Maguindanao poised to become top producer of green super rice

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines - The province will emerge as top producer of the new high-yield Green Super Rice (GSR) in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao by 2017 if the fragile peace in the area will continue in the coming months, officials said Friday.

Officials of the ARMM’s Department of Agriculture and Fisheries announced on Friday, during the Regional Farmers Field Day in Sultan Mastura, Maguindanao that Muslim and Christian peasants have reported a two to three-fold increase in their harvests in the past three cropping seasons using GSR seeds.

“The GSR is a very promising rice variety,” said Makmod Mending, regional secretary of DAF-ARMM.

The gathering of hundreds of peasants from Maguindanao’s 36 towns was jointly organized by DAF-ARMM Secretary Makmod Mending Jr. and the region’s chief executive, Gov. Mujiv Hataman.

The DAF-ARMM is advocating for the massive propagation of the six now popular GSR varieties in the autonomous region.

"These are all aromatic varieties," said Salik Panalunsong, DAF-ARMM's provincial agricultural officer for Maguindanao. 

Rice farmer Danny Tabudlo told reporters the six GSR varieties are drought-tolerant and can withstand heavy rains.

Farmers in Maguindanao that tried propagating the GSR harvested no less than seven metric tons of rice per hectare, higher than their 3.1 to 3.3 metric tons yield per hectare while still still planting in-bred rice varieties.

Karim Makud, an ethnic Maguindanaon peasant, said all they need now is calmness in their surroundings for them to master the propagation of GSR varieties.

“As long as we can till our farms peacefully, we will continue to have bumper harvests,”  Ilonggo farmer Rey Mosne, a father of three, seconded in Hiligaynon.

Friday’s gathering of farmers from across Maguindanao was capped off with the dispersal of a new P1.6 million worth Japanese-made mechanized rice harvester to a group in Barangay Tapayan in Sultan Mastura.

Mending said the combine harvester was the third to be awarded to Maguindanao province in just 12 months.

Three units of the same combine rice harvesters were earlier released by Mending’s office to peasant organizations in Lanao del Sur.

The DAF-ARMM has dispersed more than P300 million worth of farm machinery, rice and corn seeds, fertilizers and farming tools to different peasant groups in the region in the past two years.

Officials of different peasant groups that attended the DAF-ARMM activity in Sultan Mastura urged journalists to help them drumbeat their desire for the peace overture between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front to continue so they can forge ahead with their GSR propagation projects unimpeded.

They told reporters they are worried of a possible backlash in the government-MILF peace initiative as a consequence of the deadly January 25 police-rebel encounter in Mamasapano town in the second district of Maguindanao.

“Any outbreak of hostilities due to a possible impasse in the peace process will make our lives so miserable. Our families can go hungry and even become homeless,” Oscar Sanchez said in Cebuano dialect.