Model crop, tilapia farms to be set up in Lanao del Sur

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Model crop and fish farms will be set up in Lanao del Sur with funding from abroad to help residents of the province, and its capital of Marawi City, recover from conflicts.

Lt. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana of the military's Western Mindanao Command said Saturday the projects by three benefactors and by the office of Gov. Mamintal Adiong, Jr. can improve the condition in areas affected by the 2017 Marawi siege.

The United States Agency for International Development, the Plan International, East-West Seed Philippines and the provincial government of Lanao del Sur earlier this week signed an agreement to set up agricultural and inland fishery demonstration farms in the province.

"It's a very good development. The WestMinCom will support that program and secure the project sites to the best it can," Sobejana said Saturday through a text message.

Many of the 39 towns in Lanao del Sur and its provincial capital, Marawi City, are still recovering from hostilities sparked by attacks by the Dawlah Islamiya, more known as the Maute terror group, operating in the fashion of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

Adiong and representatives of the three non-government organizations signed in Cagayan de Oro Tuesday the cooperation package focused on providing stakeholders modern farming and tilapia culture technology to boost the economy in Lanao del Sur.

The signing of the agreement was witnessed by Lawrence Hardy II, who is USAID’s chief of mission, Henk Paul Marie Hermans of the East-West Seed Company and Dennis O’Brien of Plan International. 

The program aims to initially establish farming and tilapia demonstration sites in five towns in Lanao del Sur.

The USAID will help bankroll the program, according to Jennie Alonto Tamano, Lanao del Sur’s chief provincial information officer.

The four parties to the agreement are still to determine the potential sites for the farming demonstration facilities.

Adiong said that the tilapia show farms are to be established in the periphery of Lake Lanao. 

Brig. Gen. Marni Marcos, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, said he will instruct the Lanao del Sur provincial police office to formulate security measures meant to protect the project and the people involved in its implementation.