COTABATO CITY -- The North Cotabato agriculture office resumed on Thursday its dispersal of quality budded rubber seedlings to boost production in the province’s 17 towns.
Agustino Arances, provincial rubber coordinator, said his office is distributing 175,160 rubber seedlings to various farmers' groups as part of the government’s assistance to the rubber industry.
Under the provincial industrial crops development program, about 253 farmers have received budded rubber seedlings planted to about 350 hectares in 17 municipalities, according to Provincial Agriculturist Eliseo Mangliwan.
Mangliwan said the government’s role was not only the distribution of seedlings, but also on continuous monitoring, through the provincial agriculture office technicians, to ensure the rubber trees grow and maintained by beneficiaries.
The rubber seedlings, with a total cost of Php7,885,400, are sorted in small and big polybags. The rubber development program forms part of the “Serbisyong Totoo” of North Cotabato Governor Emmylou Mendoza.
The new scheme primarily aims to increase rubber production and improve farmers’ income. The province is the second biggest raw rubber producer in Mindanao. (PNA)
