COTABATO CITY , Philippines – Hundreds of ethnic Maguindanaon peasants stand to benefit from a 300-hectare corn farming project of the United Nations’ World Food Program (WFP) and the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
Makmod Mending, Jr., ARMM’s regional agriculture and fisheries secretary, said the project will cover 300 hectares of arable land in adjoining Barangays Sefaran and Kurintem, both in Maguindanao’s Datu Odin Sinsuat town.
“This WFP-assisted project is another vote of confidence for the ARMM regional leadership,†he said.
Mending and WFP’s representative to the Philippines Aomo Asaka Nyangara signed last week a memorandum of agreement (MOA) outlining details of the corn farming project.
Mending said 300 Moro farmers will be involved in the agricultural venture.
Mending and Nyangara signed the MOA in the presence of Ceasar Galvan of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Office (UNFAO) and WFP’s personnel based in Cotabato City.
The signing was capped off with the distribution to 33 different farmers’ organizations in Maguindanao of P2 million worth of post-harvest facilities which the UNFAO helped put up.