The Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) will meet today with the mayors of four vegetable production towns of Bukidnon to craft a Master Plan for Development which will improve productivity and also protect the environment especially the watershed.
The four towns of Impasugong, Talakag, Sumilao and Lantapan are located near the Kitanglad and Kalatungan Mountain Ranges from which water flowing to the major rivers of Mindanao comes from.
With an estimated 50,000 hectares of fertile high elevation land for vegetable and high value crops production, the four towns could be a major driver of Mindanao’s economic growth.
Bukidnon Governor Jose Zubiri has given his all-out support for the development of the region to be known as the IMTASULA Complex, for Impasugong, Talakag, Sumilao and Lantapan.
It was in 2018, shortly after the vegetable crisis in Metro Manila when I saw the potential of four Northern Bukidnon towns for vegetable and high value crop production.
After a successful TienDA where vegetables from the area were sold in Metro Manila at lower prices, I invited the mayors to join me in crafting a Comprehensive Master Plan for the area which would include not only improved production but environmental protection as well.
The meeting today in Lantapan town will be a continuation of the program I started when I was Secretary of Agriculture but which was stalled for a while after I resigned.
I will continue the advocacy wearing a different hat, this time as Chairman of the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) but motivated by the same burning desire and dreams.
This time, I will bring along with me technical staff who will conduct a geo-mapping of the whole area.
A team of development planners will also be with me today to start working on the Master Plan.
I have instructed MinDA Executive Director, Undersecretary Janet Lopoz, to invite our foreign funding partners to look into this initiative and provide funding support.
When I go back to the area today, I will also bring with me about 600 seedlings of Dao and 170 seedlings of Toog trees which I, the four mayors and farmer leaders in the area will plant.
These trees will grow for centuries and they will serve as monuments of our advocacy to establish in Mindanao a sustainable agriculture which promotes a balance between our desire to produce food for our needs today while at the same time protecting the environment to ensure that the next generation will have enough food as well.
(Map of the IMTASULA Region downloaded from Google Map while the drone shots of the region were taken by the MinDA Beauty and Bounty of Mindanao Media Team. Last frame shows me with my daughter, Dr. Maria Krista, a provincial board member of North Cotabato, receiving Dao seedlings from supporters from Antipas led by Engr. Romulo Fajardo. The seedlings will be planted in Bukidnon today.)
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