More peasants benefit from Cotabato LGU's agri thrusts

KIDAPAWAN CITY -At least 800 more local peasants stand to benefit from another agricultural intervention package the provincial government will launch month.North Cotabato’s provincial agriculturist, Eliseo Mangliwan, on Wednesday said they now have organic fertilizers to be distributed to the farmers, besides the technical services they are to extend to them as part of the project.The fertilizer dispersal activity was planned by Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza and the personnel of the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist, Mangliwan said.Mangliwan said the beneficiaries of the project are farmers residing in agricultural enclaves in North Cotabato’s Aleosan, Libungan, Midsayap, Tulunan, and President Roxas towns, and in different barangays at the provincial capital, Kidapawan City.The fertilizers were procured using allocation from a P4 million incentive the North Cotabato province had received from the Department of Agriculture for winning the agency’s nationwide Agri-Pinoy Rice Achievers’ Award last year. The province got the award because of the massive support of the provincial government to the local agriculture sector, which is comprised of Muslim, Christian and lumad communities,” Mangliwan said.The beneficiaries of this month's fertilizer package are members of the Small Water Impounding System Association in the province, where the provincial government and the agriculture department had constructed water catchment structures designed to irrigate farms to boost the productivity of farmers.Mangliwan said the organic fertilizersthey are to disperse anytime soon are safe to use and can increase the yield of farmers by several folds without any harmful effects to their health and the environment.