Post-harvest facilities unite Moro families

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines - – A community-built agricultural facility in Pagalungan town has improved the productivity of beneficiary-peasants and brought solidarity to once fragmented Moro families who joined hands in its construction.

Two communal solar dryers and a warehouse project along a highway in Barangay Galakit, Pagalungan was a joint venture of barangay folk, many of them active members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Social Fund Project (ASFP).

The ASFP is the World Bank’s conduit for its socio-economic interventions in fledgling areas in ARMM.

The chairman of Barangay Galakit, Anwar Matalam, and Badrodin Mamendig, president of the local People’s Organization (PO)in the area, said the communal solar dryer and grains storage facility built by local folks reduced the expenses of farmers who used to dry rice and corn grains in commercial facilities.

“Reductions in the production overhead expenses of our farmers means extra income for them,” said Mamendig, a member of the MILF.

There is even an “add on” to the post harvest facility – a barangay health station beside the grains warehouse, still being constructed by local folk and the ASFP, using funds from World Bank.

“Once completed, this health station will serve the farming communities here on a 24-hour basis,” government midwife Sofia Mangadad said.

Mamendig said the camaraderie of Barangay Galakit residents was bolstered by their direct participation in the construction of the two solar dryers and the grains warehouse.

“The local government unit of Pagalungan also extended utmost support to us when we constructed these facilities as a community project,” he said.

More than a hundred peasant families are now using the solar dryers.

He said the PO collects very minimal payment for the use of the facilities to generate funds for maintenance purposes.

Farmers in Barangay Galakit were quick to acknowledge how the post harvest facilities they constructed ushered in unity among them, that even those locked in family feuds had reconciled as a result of their bayanihan in implementing the project.

“This project is amazing, simply amazing,” commented Jocelyn Gurrion, a barangay health worker.