North Cotabato ramps up harvest of durian, exotic fruits

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines — Who says North Cotabato is poor?

Laborers and traders have said North Cotabato, which covers 17 towns and Kidapawan City, has bounced back from the devastation wrought by drought, floods and armed conflicts in the past years.

Orchard farmers and fruit vendors on Sunday told The STAR even what was touted before as "fruit for the gods," durian, is now sold at only P30 a kilo owing to the harvest surplus in farms.

Durian used to be sold in many parts of North Cotabato at no less than P60 a kilo until the 2013 harvest season.

"Same goes with other exotic fruits. Prices of these fruits are cheap now and so affordable to low income families," said Liza Loquista, a fruit vendor in Makilala town in the second district of the province.

Loquista was referring to export quality lanzones, mangosteen and rambutan local growers which are not being produced on a large scale. 

North Cotabato, now known the fruit basket of Central Mindanao, is home to vast swaths of farming lands as it is rising as the region's rubber and oil palm capital.

"We are thankful to our provincial government for its continuing agricultural interventions for farming communities under its 'Serbisyong Totoo' program," said Medardo Memfasu, a lumad orchard farmer.

Memfasu is one of the thousands of North Cotabato workers who benefitted from the free orchard, oil palm and rubber tree seedling dispersal program since 2010 of Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza.

The Mendoza administration had also dispersed hundreds of heifers, goats and water buffaloes to impoverished peasant families in recent months.

"If this will continue in the next three years, our people will have better lives," said 54-year-old corn farmer Eduardo Pangantihon of President Roxas town.

Mendoza, who is seeking a third term as Liberal Party candidate, has three challengers in the upcoming elections.

North Cotabato's farming communities recently joined the provincial Kalivungan Festival in September where they showcased the agricultural potentials of the region.

Kalivungan is a generic term, in most lumad dialects, for a big special gathering, or convergence of tribal groups either to celebrate something, or to resolve community concerns, or as a thanksgiving rite.