Miarayon, Talakag, Bukidnon – On the way to a Friday engagement in Cagayan de Oro City, I passed by the vegetable producing village of Miarayon in Talakag, Bukidnon Thursday afternoon to check on the Talaandig tribal farmers who were assisted by government through the Department of Agriculture last year.
This was the same group of farmers, who with the support of the municipal government and the DA, supplied the vegetable requirements of Metro Manila in 2018 when the prices skyrocketed following a series of typhoons which hit the Cordillera Region.
At that time, they were poor and disorganised and were at the mercy of the traders who bought their produce in Cagayan de Oro City.
When they brought their vegetables to Metro Manila, the DA organised them and helped them form the Miarayon Highland Farmers Association.
They found a leader in a young Talaandig farmer, Ryan Daño who finished an agriculture course from the Central Mindanao University.
I personally visited the area several times, making sure that the interventions were well implemented.
The farmers responded by working hard.
But the credit goes to the hardworking men and women of DA Northern Mindanao who doted on the farmers like mothers teaching their children how to walk.
They were provided by DA with a production loan through the Production Loan Easy Access Program and three tractors.
The Universal Robina Corporation (URC) selected the area as one of the sites for the distribution of potato planting materials from Canada.
When they harvested their potatoes from URC they posted a record breaking yield of 50 metric tons per hectare.
As a reward, Daño was selected by URC to join the group which travelled to Canada on a study tour.
On Thursday, I felt joy and fulfilment as the farmers received me and my group in a small office they established beside the highway from Cotabato to Cagayan de Oro.
Food was aplenty, all courtesy of the farmers.
The small office structure beside the highway will soon be converted into a pick and pay centre where passersby could buy vegetables and coffee at farm gate price.
The most rewarding news was shared by Ryan Daño who said that their earnings from tractor service fees had reached P300,000 and the association was using this to finance its members.
On Thursday, I told the farmers that I will write Department of Agriculture Secretary William Dar to officially invite them to join the Mindanao Agri-Tourism-Trade Delegation to Manado, Indonesia.
They will be asked to bring along with them samples of their produce – potatoes, cauliflower, cabbage, carrots and coffee.
The Trade Mission is being organised by the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) as a follow-through activity following the opening of the Davao-Manado air service by Garuda.
When I left Miarayon to continue with my journey to Cagayan de Oro City, I noticed so much activity in the once sleepy village.
New tricycles, small cargo trucks and “ukay-ukay” outlets in the side streets marked the changes in the lives of the people of Miarayon.
I asked myself what the place would have looked like had government not exerted an extra effort to venture into the isolated village and helped the farmers.
This is the thought that always inspires and powers me to take the long and rigorous road trip as a public servant.
It is tiresome especially for a senior like myself but the rewards are overwhelming.
(Photos of my recent visited to Miarayon were taken by Mayette Tudlas while the file photos of the potato harvest were taken by Ariel Faraon of URC.)
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