AGRICULTURE

COTABATO CITY -– It was a tedious and expensive 17-year uphill struggle for land ownership they will never ever forget.The 54 peasants who fought it out had finally been grouped Tuesday into a communal bloc, the Maloong-Canal Farmers Agrarian Reform Multi-Purpose Cooperative, as a positive aftermath of a battle stymied by lack of money and connections.The group, whose members are called, in technical parlance, agrarian reform partners (ARPs) of Philippine government, was launched as a duly organized cooperative by the Department of Agrarian Reform in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao

BULUAN, Maguindanao --- Close to a thousand villagers in drought-stricken areas in Maguindanao province benefited from a series of humanitarian missions meant to cushion the adverse effects of rice and corn production shortages due to the dry spell.Lynette Estandarte, budget officer of the Maguindanao provincial government and concurrent in-charge of the People’s Medical Team, said the latest of their relief missions were held Wednesday in Rajah Buayan town in the second district of the province.Rajah Buayan was hit by flashfloods spawned by heavy rains last year and devastated anew by the

COTABATO CITY- The Department of Agriculture and Fisheries in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (DAF-ARMM) distributedon Mondaya total of P39.2 million worth of farm inputs and equipment to different farmers’ cooperatives in Lanao del Sur to help boost agricultural production in the area.The equipment included 4 farm tractors, 13 floating tillers, 5 corn planters, 4 corn shellers, 10 cassava graters, a combined harvester and a corn hammer mill. The farmers also received 16,400 bags of hybrid rice and corn seeds.ARMM Governor Mujiv S.

KORONADAL CITY -- Abaca production in Sarangani Province has beenboosted by approval of the Department of Agriculture(DA) of amulti-million fiber enterprise
which will benefit indigenous peoples (IPs).

KORONADAL CITY --- The government’s continuing cloud-seeding operations in Central Mindanao since last week has induced scattered moderate downpours, a senior agriculture official said Thursday.Amalia Jayag-Datukan, director for Region 12 of the Department of Agriculture, said there were scattered rains this week in Koronadal City and in South Cotabato’s nearby Santo Niño, Lake Sebu, Polomolok and Tupi towns.There were also light to moderate downpours in parts of Sultan Kudarat, North Cotabato and Sarangani provinces, according to Datukan.At least 147 bags of sodium chloride (salt) had been

MAGUINDANAO -- Farmers in 17 of Maguindanao’s 36 towns lost their rice and corn crops to the now two-month dry spell, feared to cause widespread hunger without downpours until summer.Field workers are still validating reports on the extent of crop damage in the other 19 Maguindanao towns, according to provincial officials and the agriculture department of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM)The provincial board, chaired by Maguindanao Vice Gov.

BULUAN, Maguindanao – The entire province of Maguindanao has been declared under state of calamity due to rising cost of damages brought about by the dry spell, Gov. Esmael Toto Mangudadatu today said.Mangudadatu, chair of the provincial disaster risk reduction and management council, said the provincial legislative body has approved his recommendation to declare state of calamity in Maguindanao’s 35 municipalities to cushion the impact of dry spell. Our initial report on damages showed close to P120 million have been destroyed by the dry spell and rat attacks, Mangudadatu told reporters.

SOUTH UPI, Maguindanao – Farmers in remote villages here are likely to experience starvation if the drought that has plagued farming communities here continue for another month, indigenous farmers said.In a vast corn field, the effects of El Nino phenomenon had taken its toll on members of Indigenous Peoples who are reliant on agricultural products and indigenous crops as daily food on their tables.Green surroundings have turned to brown and dry as the villagers here have not tasted rain water the past two months.

KABACAN, North Cotabato -- The Kabacan disaster and agriculture officials, led by Mayor Herlo Guzman, have launched Thursday morning a massive rat hunting expedition to bolster the campaign of eradicating the pests that had been destroying vast agricultural lands in this town’s nine rice and corn producing villages.The campaign includes giving of 50 kilos or one sack of rice for every 500 rat tails that the farmers could present to disaster officials, Guzman said.Guzman said the Kabacan LGU initiated this reward system to encourage farmers in the campaign to save the vast rice fields, corn

KORONADAL CITY -- The Department of Agriculture in
SOCCSKSARGEN Region started its cloud seeding operations on Saturday, January
23, 2016, topmost official of the agency confirmed.

DA 12 Regional Executive Director
AmaliaJayag-Datukan disclosed that personnel from the Bureau of Soils and Water
Management (BSWM) led by Leolito Siase together with members of the Philippine
Air Force arrived in General Santos City to man the conduct of the cloud
seeding operations after their assessments last week.