Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Governor: Cotabato to set up 'seedling bank' for farmers
THERE are commercial banks, blood banks, and even sperm banks, but never has there been a seedling bank.
And this is what the Provincial Government of North Cotabato plans to build and institutionalize to help poor farmers start their own business.
Governor Emmanuel Piñol said the seedling bank would be granting planting materials to farmers instead of money.
He said this will be his legacy to his people in North Cotabato and urged other local governments to establish the same in their areas.
The governor said they are now doing this scheme in their plant-now-pay-later program but added that he wants it to be institutionalized and a bank constructed just for this purpose.
Piñol is pinning his hope on agriculture as the vehicle that would lead them to progress and development and uplift the lives of his constituents.
The Provincial Government is particularly banking on the palm oil and rubber industry to make them be among the top ten most progressive provinces in the country.
In 1998 North Cotabato was the 5th poorest province, now in the latest National Statistics Coordination Board survey it became the 29th most progressive province in the country.
This year alone, the province has allocated P35 million budget for the rubber industry and P25 million for the palm oil.
For the next six years, the province has targeted 100,000 hectares of their land area to be planted with rubber while 50,000 hectares will be allocated for the palm oil.
At the moment, 35,000 hectares of North Cotabato are already planted with rubber while 2,800 hectares are planted with palm trees.
Piñol said farmers are earning at least P120,000 per hectare annually for planting rubber and palm trees.
With this, he is hopeful that in few years time they will be able to emancipate half of the province's 20 percent of the total population who are still living below the poverty threshold.
Just recently, the governor visited the Buliok area, once a MILF stronghold, to distribute seedlings to the farmers there. Piñol was accompanied by only six security personnel. Few years back, a battalion of soldiers is needed whenever he visits the area. (BOT)
For Bisaya stories from Davao. Click here. (August 2, 2006 issue)
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