Modernizing cassava production, marketing

A P39-MILLION project involving the production and marketing of cassava granules in South Cotabato is under way as part of a pipeline of enterprise development initiatives under the Philippine Rural Development Project.

The Department of Agriculture said five tractors were recently turned-over to cassava farmers in Polomolok town to improve the implementation of their cassava-based enterprise.

The project involves the Polo Samahang Nayon Multi-Purpose Cooperative (Polo SNMPC), which is the lead proponent, as well as the Self-Reliant MPC, San Jose MPC, Pobusilla MPC and Topland MPC.

The department said at least 250 cassava farmers directly benefited when the sub-project started last year. The proponents aim to increase beneficiaries by 40 percent every year of implementation.

Earlier, the United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) warned that small-scale farmers in Mindanao were bearing the brunt of the El Niño’s effects on the Philippines as drought was expected to prevail in the coming months and cause worsening food insecurity.

In its latest bulletin on the Philippines, the Ocha raised concern for large areas of the archipelago’s southern regions even as the World Meteorological Organization (WMO)—also a UN agency —said the El Niño is expected to fade in the next few months after heating up 2015 to historic highs.

The Ocha mentions in particular Region 12 or Soccsksargen. Considered to be Mindanao’s breadbasket and home to rice and corn farms as well as banana and pineapple plantations.

“Extensive damage to rice and corn production in Region 12 is feared to further aggravate the food insecurity of the vulnerable people in Mindanao,” the agency added.

“While many landless farmers cultivate one of the richest farmlands in the country, they are often chronically food insecure,” the Ocha said. “A single bad harvest can strain their already-poor access to food as well as their income to purchase alternatives. Coupled with low literacy levels and a dependence on rural livelihoods, they find it extremely difficult to cope with the impact of El Niño.”