LAMUT, Ifugao -- Called the "Gateway Municipality of Ifugao", this town was once a lowly community with poor road networks and high incidence of poverty.
Although blessed with vast tracts of flat lands and rolling hills, large part of the area consisted of idle and unproductive grasslands mostly used for grazing cattle and other ruminants because of lack of water and irrigation supply.
Agricultural production was also very poor. The value of land then was very cheap since few people had the patience of toiling and making it productive. Buyers were scarce with the harsh reality it would be difficult living in the area as travel and communication in the place was hard due to lack of road networks, communication facilities and other infrastructures.
But situation changed with the construction of the Hapid National Irrigation System along the Bulao River of this town in the late 1990s.
From a gloomy and laidback life, the future turned rosy with the place transformed into a bustling and busy commercial and trade center.
Following the completion of the irrigation system, many people became interested in buying and owning lands in the area. And the value of the once cheap lands skyrocketed.
Still, more people were drawn to reside in the place because of the promise of a bright future.
Soon, the vast tract of flat and grassy idle lands were converted into irrigated rice fields and agricultural farmlands bringing the owners and people bountiful harvest each cropping while other parts of the lands were also excavated and turned into fishponds producing the tilapia fish.
Today, after a decade of the water supply paving the way for agricultural development, the municipality of Lamut is now a 4th class municipality and continuously emerging as an investment frontier rapidly overtaking the rest of the towns of Ifugao in terms of progress and development with a growth rate of 2.28%.
Lamut has a land area of 14,581.25 hectares with 5,480.18 has. for agriculture; 5,390 has. for watershed forestry; 1,550 has. as pastureland and 1,641.02 as built-up area.
It has a total population of 23,080 (2010 NSO).
As of the latest survey of roads, the municipality has a total road inventory of 182.63 kilometers with 18% or 33.5 kms. already paved; 81.5 kms. or 45% graveled and 67.93 kms. or 37% of it is earth road.
Communication in the area also improved basically through postal communication and speed mail services, local broadcast services, telephone and cellular mobile phone services, internet services, cable television and private satellite dish telephone services.
The town has two hotels and inns, two banking institutions, three registered cooperatives, two registered private financing institutions and 502 registered firms.
Likewise, the construction of a bigger district hospital at Barangay Banting expanded its role for the accommodation of health services and facilities with a province-wide coverage after the de-commissioning of the Ifugao General Hospital in Lagawe with its worn out building no longer fit for operations.
As an emerging agro-industrial center, the municipality has trading centers that function as "bagsakan" or drop-off areas for the wholesale transaction of products and goods. There is also the Provincial Livelihood Center that showcases Ifugao products and provides market linkage among buyers and producers.
The town boasts of its flourishing tilapia fish production. Tilapia was chosen as the One-Town-One Product (OTOP) of the municipality with the slogan “Fish and Development” . The fishpond areas of the place cover a total of 92 has. owned by 250 fisherfolks with a total of 1,000 farm workers that produce an average of 1,000 tons of fish per annum.
Together with the municipality of Alfonso Lista, theys made Ifugao the top producer of in-land fish in the Cordillera Administrative Region. The presence of the Provincial Hatchery and the Regional Hatchery for Pangasius (catfish) in the municipality makes Lamut the center for Tilapia and Pangasius production in the province.
Being the gateway of the province, the town has the comparative advantage as a major link to the lowland provinces of Nueva Vizcaya, Quirino and Isabela offering opportunities to trade and market development not only of the municipality but for the entire province of Ifugao.
Indeed the municipality has traveled a long way to progress and development. Aside from fish production, it is an investment area for the manufacture of agro-based products, rice and corn trading and milling, production of high value crops, organically grown products, cattle production, agricultural contract growing, agricultural inputs and agricultural financing. (Daniel Codamon)