ASPIRING ORGANIC FARMERS. A former Moro Islamic Liberation Front combatant-turned-farmer affixes his signature that signified his being a trainee for vegetable organic farming for the next 16 weeks in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao. The training, which registration and orientation took place Tuesday (July 28, 2020) at the MILF main base in Barangay Simuay of Sultan Kudarat town (inset), will run from August to September 2020. (Photo courtesy of MAFAR-BARMM)
COTABATO CITY – Twenty-five former combatants of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) are set to embark on a 16-week training on organic farming that is expected to further improve the production of their farmlands.
Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Agrarian Reform (MAFAR) Minister Abdulraof Macacua said the trainees will engage themselves in organic vegetable production at their farms in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao.
“From rice and corn crops, the MILF farmers will now venture in planting and raising of vegetables,” Macacua, also concurrent executive secretary of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) said on Tuesday.
Macacua said the organic farming training program, dubbed as the “Season-Long Training on Organic Vegetable Production”, will start in August and end by November this year in partnership with the Department of Agriculture Region 12.
It will be facilitated by MAFAR-BARMM under its flagship program SALIG or “Services and Actions with Love and Integrity from the Government.”
“I firmly believe that this agricultural training would make our former MILF members better farmers,” Macacua said.
Organic farming is a method involving the cultivation of plants and rearing of farm animals in natural ways. Its techniques involve the use of biological materials, avoiding synthetic substances to maintain soil fertility and ecological balance thereby minimizing pollution and wastage. (PNA)
