Conflict-stricken villagers in Agusan del Norte get farm machinery from ICRC

COTABATO CITY — The International Committee of the Red Cross has provided post-harvest facilities to 107 marginalized families in Cabadbaran City in Agusan Del Norte to boost their agricultural productivity, badly stifled by armed conflicts in their villages.

Local executives in Cabadbaran City and officials of the Agusan del Norte provincial government said the beneficiaries of the ICRC’s corn sheller and corn mill distribution activity are residents of interior barangays in Cabadbaran City, scenes of deadly clashes between state forces and the New People’s Army in recent months.

Rachel Malaguit, who is ICRC’s press relations officer in the country, said on Monday that among the villagers who got post-harvest facilities, placed inside a newly-constructed shelter, are residents of Sitio Lusong in Barangay Puting Bato.

Members of more than a hundred families in secluded areas were together trained in late 2023 by experts in the ICRC and agriculturists in the Cabadbaran City local government unit on inter-cropping, hillside farming and plant contouring techniques and crop post-harvest management.

“Armed conflicts cause severe consequences on civilians, such as the loss of jobs and livelihood. We hope that this farm equipment will have a positive impact on the lives of the people and pave the way for them to have a brighter future,” Ishfaq Muhammad Khan, a senior ICRC official in the Philippines, said.

Malaguit said the Cabadbaran City LGU and the provincial government of Agusan Del Norte helped facilitate the distribution of the farm equipment to villagers.

Local officials told reporters at least 37 families in Barangay Puting Bato relying mainly on propagation of corn as source of income now have equipment that can hasten the processing of their harvests that they sell to traders in the center of Cabadbaran City.

Radio reports in Cotabato City and in other cities in Region 12 on Monday quoted barangay officials in Cabadbaran City as saying that the ICRC had also provided the displaced villagers with farming tools and food supplies.

The provisions included corn and vegetable seeds that farmers can plant in their farms.