4 benefactors, Lanao Sur gov't forge common development program
COTABATO CITY -- Four benefactors, including the United States Agency for International Development, will help farmers in Marawi City and Lanao del Sur recover from the effects of recent armed conflicts.
Lanao del Sur Mamintal Adiong, Jr. and representatives from USAID, Plan International, East-West Seed Philippines and the Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation forged Tuesday a memorandum of agreement binding them to cooperate on agriculture and fishery programs that would benefit the Maranao communities.
Many of the 39 towns in Lanao del Sur and its provincial capital, Marawi City, are still recovering from hostilities in 2017 instigated by the local Dawlah Islamiya group operating in the fashion of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
Adiong and representatives of the four non-government organizations signed, during a simple rite in Cagayan de Oro Tuesday, the cooperation package focused on providing stakeholders modern farming and tilapia culture technology to boost the economy in Lanao del Sur.
The multilateral peace and development venture for Maranao communities aims to initially establish farming and tilapia demonstration sites in five towns in Lanao del Sur.
The USAID will help bankroll the program, according to Jennie Alonto Tamano, Lanao del Sur’s chief provincial information officer.
Adiong said the parties involved in the program are still to determine, with the help of government soil analysis experts, the potential sites for the farming demonstration facilities.
Adiong hinted that the tilapia demonstration farms are likely to be established in the periphery of Lake Lanao.
“We are grateful to the benefactors of this program. This is a big help. This will complement our efforts to hasten the restoration of normalcy in conflict-stricken areas in Lanao del Sur,” Adiong said.
Tuesday’s crafting of the memorandum by the Lanao del Sur provincial government and its four partners was witnessed by Lawrence Hardy II, who is USAID’s chief of mission, Henk Paul Marie Hermans of the East-West Seed Company and Dennis O’Brien of Plan International.