Monday, October 30, 2006 Mining causes veggie smuggling, importation: miner
WITH the improved prices of metals in the market and the problem battering Benguet's vegetable industry, several farmers in the province are now shifting to mining activities, a local miner said.
Lomino Kaniteng, president of the Benguet Federation of Small-scale Miners' Association (BFSMA), said the improved prices of metals is now encouraging local farmers to engage in small-scale mining. The prevailing average buying price per gram of gold is P9.60.
The percentage of those shifting to mining is not determined but Kaniteng said a significant number of crop producers are now engaged in the endeavor, reasoning they could immediately get their income from the gold mined compared to agriculture where they have to wait for three or more months before reaping the fruit of their labor.
He said traces of small-scale mining activities are now evident in the towns of Kibungan, Atok and Tublay -- areas where the main source of livelihood is agriculture.
In Benguet, the municipalities of Mankayan, Tuba and Itogon are the mining dominated areas.
The shift to mining is also triggered by problems on rampant vegetable importation and smuggling, which local growers claim is slowly leading the agriculture industry to collapse.
Farmers claimed that they could not cope with the unabated entry of foreign vegetables that flood the local markets today.
Mining is one of the major industries in Benguet and has continued to be a huge income provider to the locals as well as migrants to the province. In the past three years, the industry has been at par with large-scale mining companies in terms of metal production.
Records of the Mines and Geo-Sciences Bureau (MGB), small-scale miners were able to produce more than 8,000 kilos of gold with an estimated value of more than P4.8 billion. (JC)
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