Rice, corn sufficient in ARMM amid calamities

• Source: http://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1022669
• Thursday, January 25, 2018

By Noel Punzalan (PNA)

COTABATO CITY -- The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) is enjoying sufficiency in rice and corn harvests despite man-made and natural calamities that severely hit two of its provinces in 2017, the regional agriculture office said.

In rice harvests, Department of Agriculture and Fisheries – ARMM Secretary Alexander Alonto Jr. said the region still managed to produce 577,973 metric tons of rice yields last year compared to 544,486 metric tons in 2016.

It’s a mere six percent increase but the ARMM maintained its sufficiency in rice production,” he stressed.

In corn production, however, the region chalked a whopping 43 percent increase in harvests at 850, 063 last year compared to 590,579 metric tons the previous year.

This came about despite the Marawi City siege incident that affected rice and corn production in the entire Lanao del Sur province and the two tropical storms, Vinta and Wilma, which inundated huge tracts of agricultural lands in Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao both situated in mainland Mindanao.

At least 5, 063 and 1, 135 hectares of rice lands in Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao, respectively, were inundated by the storms last year.

Maguindanao, for its part, is also pestered by intermittent attacks on remote farming communities by IS-linked Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters with planters leaving behind their farms unattended for quite some time as government troops clear their areas of militants.

Other ARMM areas are Lamitan City and the island-provinces of Basilan, Tawi-tawi and Sulu situated in the Zamboanga Peninsula.

This developed as DAF-ARMM is pushing for the production of white corn variety in the region.

Accordingly, the white corn variety, which is much cheaper than yellow corn, is rich in protein, minerals, carbohydrates, and antioxidants that fight cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and diabetes, among others.

“It is also good for pregnant women because it contains folate, which is rich in Vitamin B that helps form the baby cell inside the mother’s womb,” Edna Bajao, DAF-ARMM rice and corn specialist, said.

She added that the white corn variety would be fully introduced to farmers in the region this year.

The DAF-ARMM is operating on a PhP460, 545 - million budget for 2018, some PHP6-M lower than last year’s PhP466, 301-M allotment.