MAFAR-BARMM Support! Sorghum, Soybean Farmers Get Fertilizer, Inputs Loans

The former battlegrounds of Mindanao may soon become the major producer of two important components in animal feeds production as the young Bangsamoro Government has pledged to support the development of the Sorghum and Soybeans Program.
Minister Mohammad Yacob of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Agrarian Reform (MAFAR) has adopted a program which would extend short-term production loans for both Sorghum and Soybeans farmers to be channeled through farmers associations and cooperatives.
The loans would be repaid after harvest to be deducted from the farmers proceeds and then sloughed back for the next planting season to ensure the continuity of the program.
The loaning program which I designed and endorsed to Minister Yacob for implementation would be the first of its kind in the BARMM would come in the form of farm inputs like fertilizer which would be a mix of organic and inorganic, herbicide, insecticide and foliar fertilizer.
On Tuesday, May 21, the Sorghum Program will be launched covering an initial area of 100 hectares in the towns of North Upi and South Upi in Maguindanao del Norte.
Former Upi Mayor Ruben Platon who is now a full-time farmer leads the program through the Daruga United Farmers Marketing Cooperative.
Under the program, the Southseas Agri-Aqua Ventures Inc. (SAAVI), a young company which I and former Senator Ping Lacson formed in 2022 along with several friends, will provide the seeds payable upon harvest.
We will also provide the technical support and a marketing agreement which stipulates a Buy-Back Scheme which assures farmers of a market with a guaranteed price.
The fertilizer and farm inputs loan to be granted by MAFAR-BARMM will be channeled through the cooperative which will also be tasked to collect the payment from the farmers after harvest.
After three cropping of Sorghum, Soybeans will be introduced as a rotational crop to rehabilitate and rejuvenate the soil because of its nitrogen fixing attributes.
The BARMM is composed of five provinces – Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, Maguindanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-tawi – with an estimated land area of about 1.2-million hectares.
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