Development Model! Sorghum Farming Offers Hope For Tribal Village

Last week, Fil-Am farmer-scientist Rocky French and I visited the remote village of Sitio Basag, Tuael, President Roxas in North Cotabato which is in the boundary of Bukidnon Province, where a Tribal Clan owns an estimated 5,000 hectares of steep, rolling and undulating land planted mostly to corn.
The village was typical of almost all Ancestral Domain Areas I visited with poverty prevalent and very visible.
The road to the village in very bad state and difficult even with 4×4 vehicles that we used.
The community itself does not even have a source of drinking water, no electric power or even a small sari-sari store where residents could buy their most basic needs.
The Sitio Basag IP Cooperative which the residents formed may yet change the lives of the tribal people in the area as they decided to enter into a Sorghum Contract Growing Agreement with our young company, the Southseas Agri-Aqua Ventures, Inc., headed by former Senator Panfilo Lacson.
With the help of a benevolent benefactor, Marlene dela Paz of EMP Feed Mix Manufacturing who agreed to finance their Sorghum Production project, the Cooperative through its chairman, Juan Molina, has allocated 1,200 hectares for the project.
Dela Paz will finance their project while SAAV Inc. will provide the seeds on credit, technical support and buy the Sorghum grains at an agreed price.
This project is expected to change the lives of people in the village because with a monthly target of 300 hectares to be planted manually, at least 100 residents will be employed receiving an average of P5,000 each per month.
Since Sorghum is harvested three times with just one planting, the residents of the tribal village could find work year-round, not to mention their share from the production of Sorghum.
Just like the SAAV Inc. projects in other Tribal Areas in Sitio Balnabo, San Jose, General Santos City and Barangay Camanga, Maasim, Saranggani Province, the Sitio Basag Sorghum Program could be a template for the development of other Ancestral Domains all over Mindanao where poverty pervades in the midst of thousands of hectares of agricultural land.
#KungGustoMaramingParaan!