KIDAPAWAN CITY, March 19 (PNA) — More than 800 local farmers in North Cotabato will soon receive agricultural intervention package from the Office of the Provincial Agriculture, officials announced Thursday.
Eliseo Mangliwan, North Cotabato provincial agriculturist, said his office is set to distribute organic fertilizers to farmers groups in the province followed by the conduct of technical services to increase productivity.
North Cotabato is known to be the rice granary of Central Mindanao region.
He said it was part of the program North Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Mendoza and the personnel of the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist had been pursuing.
Farmer beneficiaries will come from the towns of Aleosan, Libungan, Midsayap, Tulunan, and President Roxas towns.
The dispersal is scheduled next week at the provincial capitol grounds in Kidapawan City.
Mangliwan said the fertilizers were procured using allocation from the Php4 million incentive the North Cotabato province had received from the Department of Agriculture for winning the agency’s nationwide Agri-Pinoy Rice Achievers’ Award last year.
“The province earned the award because of the massive support of the provincial government to the local agriculture sector, which is comprised of Muslim, Christian and lumad communities,” Mangliwan said.
The beneficiaries of this month’s fertilizer package are members of the Small Water Impounding System Association in the province, where the provincial government and the agriculture department had constructed water catchment structures designed to irrigate farms to boost the productivity of farmers.
Mangliwan said the organic fertilizers they are to disperse anytime soon are safe to use and can increase the yield of farmers by several folds without any harmful effects to their health and the environment.Mendoza on Tuesday renewed her pledge to help improve the lives of farmers in North Cotabato.
Mendoza, in her state of the province address (SOPA) at a public gymnasium in Makilala town on Tuesday, also lauded the continuing cooperation among her ethnically diverse constituents in keeping the fragile tranquility in the province. (PNA)