North Cotabato folk urged to patronize local farm products
AGRICULTURE • 13:45 PM Fri Jul 19, 2019
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By:
John M. Unson
Gov. Nancy Catamco and representatives from the Yovel East Research and Development, Inc. met at the provincial capitol Thursday. (PGO-ICID)
NORTH COTABATO --- The provincial government aims to empower local agricultural communities by educating the public on the need to patronize their products to boost domestic economy.
Newcomer Gov. Nancy Catamco said Friday offices under her shall embark on campaigns for local residents to patronize rice and other agricultural products from farming enclaves in North Cotabato’s 17 towns and the more than 40 barangays in its capital, Kidapawan City.
Catamco, the first ever governor from an indigenous community in the province, said Friday encouraging local consumers to maximize procurement of farm products from their surroundings will improve both the local economy and the lives of marginalized farmers as well.
On Thursday, representatives of the Yovel East Research and Development, Inc. met Catamco and former provincial board member Socrates Piñol at the governor’s office in Kidapawan City where they discussed the prospects of agricultural interventions patterned from self-sustaining Israeli-style communal farming and livestock propagation.
North Cotabato in Administrative Region 12 province has vast swaths of rice, corn, rubber and orchard farms and some of its barangays are lined along the northern side of the 220,000-hectare Liguasan Delta from where residents get enough supply of fresh water fishes.
Piñol, who failed in his bid for the vice gubernatorial post of North Cotabato during the May 13 elections, is now a volunteer agricultural extension service facilitator in the office of Catamco.
He said he will help push, on volunteer basis, the governor’s agricultural thrusts forward through dialogues on its benefits with North Cotabato’s farming and fisherfolk communities.
Catamco said among the farm products she wants her constituents to patronize are rice from North Cotabato’s rice-producing towns.
“We are assured of the quality of the rice from these towns,” she said.
She said people also ought to always buy fruits in large quantities from farmers in the province, whose capital, Kidapawan City, is touted as the “fruit basket” of Central Mindanao.
“Eating fruits is good for the health and buying them from our farmers is also a way of helping them earn more for the schooling of their children and other needs at home,” Catamco said.