Thursday, April 05, 2007 Arroyo to highlight Minda in agri confab
THE First Mindanao Agriculture and Food Convention (MAFCON) 2007 comes at a very opportune time in the light of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's heightened focus on Mindanao, this time being the agribusiness Super Region of the South.
Convention chairman Edwin B. Andot of the Chamber of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Industries of the Northern Miudanao (CAFFINORMIN) said this during the recent "Talakayan sa PIA" media forum at the Philippine Information Agency in Cagayan de Oro City.
Slated April 23 to 25, 2007 at the Grand Caprice Restaurant and Convention Center in Cagayan de Oro, Andot said they are expecting more than 600 participants from producers and agribusiness organizations.
Andot said the participants represent the millions of members mostly coming from the various sectors such as farmers, farming households, food processors and agri-entrepreneurs or 54 percent of Mindanao's total labor force that depend on Mindanao agriculture for their daily sustenance and overall economic future.
President Arroyo will keynote the convention on April 24, 10 a.m. as confirmed by the Office of the Appointments Secretary in Malacanang, he said.
The President, Andot said, might make pronouncements on the various resolutions that were submitted to her office during the first up to the sixth Mindanao Food Congress.
One of the vital parts of this convention is the rendering of reports by foreign donors or partners in Mindanao in support of the agri-business growth like the US Department of agriculture, AusAID, GEM-USAID, and the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), among others.
In one of the plenary sessions, where Executive Director Jerry E. Pacturan of the Philippine Development Assistance Programme, Inc. (PDAP) will be the resource person on organic agriculture, issues and other concerns will be discussed by the various sectors in the fruits, feeds and grains, livestock and poultry, inland fisheries with focus on the marine fish capture and culture, and the food processing industry.
He reported that of the six industries, Mindanao has enough or surplus supply of fruits, vegetables, livestock and poultry, fisheries and the food processing, but still lack the needed supply for rice.
We still have to promote rice farming to secure the needs of the Filipinos, he further said.
Focused on this year's theme "Mindanao Agribusiness for the Philippines and the World Market," biofuels as answer to Mindanao's need for alternate supply of oil or energy will be discussed by Colonel Alejandro Teves Escano, president of the Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food, Inc., said Andot. (Trends)
