THE National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) will focus on bringing quality social services closer to the unserved and underserved Filipinos in Mindanao, an official of the agency said.
NAPC Secretary and Lead Convenor Noel Felongco noted that Mindanao has a poverty incidence of 40 percent, higher than the 21.6 percent national poverty incidence.
"The percentage shows the real situation here in Mindanao. The 40 percent poverty incidence, most of the areas are coming from the Bangsamoro area," Felongco said.
Apart from its three banner programs, NAPC said it will help Mindanao farmers, particularly those in Lanao del Sur, to help reduce poverty incidence in the region.
The agency’s three banner programs are Sambayanihan, Serbisyong Sambayanan; Provincial Consultative Body; and Actionable Development Agenda for Poverty Transformation (ADAPT 40/10/10).
"Lanao del Sur is the number one province where we can find many poor people. The poverty incidence there is 71.9 percent. So, we really have to help our farmers in the Bangsamoro area, particularly in Lanao del Sur," Felongco said.
"In fact, I have talked to some of our farmer friends in Lanao del Sur and they are willing to collaborate with NAPC," he added.
Felongco believed that organic farming will help the farmers in Lanao del Sur, albeit, he added, that the farmers are still struggling with the high cost of inputs in producing rice.
"The problem right now of our farmers is basically the high cost of inputs in producing rice. These inputs are: the synthetic fertilizer, the pesticides, and even the seeds," Felongco said.
"So, the cost of acquiring these requirements in order for you to produce rice or palay is very much high compared to the yield. The yield is so low that we can say that farming in the Philippines is not profitable," he added.
The NAPC secretary said that helping the farmers shift to organic farming will not just help them gain more income but also help the environment.
"Organic farming will not only help our farmers to gain more income, but it will also help our environment because organic fertilizer will bring back the nutrients lost because of the use of synthetic fertilizers and it will prevent more pests to destroy or to damage the palay," Felongco said.
"Top of the agenda of NAPC is really to help our farmers and to advocate to them to shift to organic farming," he added.
NAPC is the primary agency involved in the overall government plans to reduce our country’s poverty incidence of 21.6 percent to 14 percent by 2022.
“I am positive that attaining zero poverty by 2040, where nobody will be left behind is possible. We need to have a positive outlook that we can achieve this and hopefully the next administrations will adopt AmBisyon 2040,” Felongco said.
The NAPC secretary assured that the agency will come back to continually implement poverty alleviation efforts in the region.
The NAPC will also be going to places where the agency is not known so that quality social services will be made accessible to all stakeholders, particularly those who have not been served or underserved in Mindanao.