Cotabato farmers to plant rice in Papua New Guinea demo farms

KIDAPAWAN CITY —At least 19 farmers from M’lang town in North Cotabato left the country last week to plant rice in demonstration farms in Papua New Guinea (PNG), in what Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol said was a new agri-business venture that hopes to resolve food security woes of the two countries.

Piñol said that under the agreement with PNG, a Filipino company allots 25 hectares as rice demonstration farm located at the Pacific Adventist University where Cotabato farmers are employed.

The secretary expects that per hectare will yield at least 8.6 metric tons of rice.

As provided for in the Memorandum of Agreement, PNG citizens are priority beneficiaries of demo farm's yield.

“The products would be sold to the PNG, and whatever is in excess would be shipped or exported to the Philippines,” Piñol said.

Such agri-business venture, according to the secretary, is first in the PNG.   But for Filipinos, this is not something new.

“Japan buys banana fruits in the Philippines through a Japanese-owned Sumifru Corporation.  The US, through Dole and Del Monte, buys pineapples in our country.    The Philippines-PNG agri-business venture is like that,” said Piñol.

The secretary is hopeful the venture will help resolve food security issues in the country whose population is growing by 1.7 percent annually.

“Why are we supporting this?  We’re looking forward 10 to 30 years, we’re growing as a country at 1.7 percent every year, muabot ang panahon nga ang yuta sa Pilipinas, 3.9 million hectares of palay will no longer support our needs,” he said. —LBG, GMA News