Wednesday, October 11, 2006 300 hectares eyed for sugarcane expansion in N. Cotabato By Ben O. Tesiorna
SOME 300 hectares of land are being eyed by the Cotabato Sugar Central Corporation (Cosuceco) in Barangay Patot, Pigcawayan town in North Cotabato as part of its sugarcane farms expansion program.
Cosuceco is willing to provide financial assistance to farmers in the barangay who are interested to go into sugarcane farming.
During a briefing-consultation held Thursday last week, Cocuseco cane supply manager Grenold Ramos explained that the company will extend as much as P30,000 per hectare to interested farmers as production loan.
Payment of the loan will be deducted from the payment of their cane deliveries to the mill.
The loan will cover for planting materials, farm inputs, land preparation using tractors, and labor cost.
Ramos said farmers stand to earn a net of about P20,000 per hectare during their first harvest.
North Cotabato Governor Emmanuel Piñol, who is supporting the project in line with the Provincial Government's high value crops program, said its tractor pool would be used for the land preparation phase of the project.
The Provincial Government in coordination with the Municipal Government of Pigcawayan will also work on the construction and rehabilitation of roads in the areas that have been identified for sugarcane production.
Piñol, who visited Barangay Patot with Pigcawayan Mayor Herminio Roquero Thursday, also asked Cosuceco to consider the extension of a carabao loan to farmers whose lands are not suitable for tractors. This, he said, could be made part of the production loan package.
In areas where sugarcane is not suitable, the governor encouraged Patot farmers to plant rubber.
Piñol asked Roquero to schedule a training on rubber production and technology for Patot and coordinate the same with the Office of the Governor which would provide the resource persons.
