A massive stakeholders forum is happening in the newly formed Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) this week to pave the way for the crafting of the region’s first ever agriculture master plan.
Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said that leaders of farmers and fishermen’s groups, people’s organizations, development planners, agriculturists, engineers and local officials of BARMM will gather in Davao City today until tomorrow (July 11 to 12) to craft the region’s “Agriculture and Fisheries Master Plan.”
BARMM’s 10-year Master Plan for Agriculture and Fisheries will be the first ever to be crafted for the Bangsamoro region whose development was stunted by decades of conflict and bloodshed.
Right after the completion of the master plan, the draft will be presented to BARMM Chief Minister Al Haj Ahod Murad Ebrahim.
The Department of Agriculture (DA), for its part, will submit another copy to President Duterte before he delivers the State-of-the-Nation Address (SONA) on July 22.
This, as Piñol prepares to leave the DA to takeover the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA), the counterpart of National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) in Mindanao.
Duterte said he needs a pointman like Piñol to attain lasting peace in Mindanao.
During the stakeholders forum, the DA and BARMM’s Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Agrarian Reform (MAFAR) will give their technical and administrative assistance to help the stakeholders to identify the interventions needed to improve the lives of people in the country’s poorest region.
The DA will facilitate the activity, which will involve about 300 participants including those coming from the distant and isolated islands of the region.
During the pre-planning meeting between the DA and MAFAR held last week, it was agreed that the master plan will focus on increasing the agriculture and fisheries productivity in the region endowed with fertile soil and rich fishing grounds.
Strategies to identify critical infrastructure services like rural roads and fish ports to hasten economic growth as well as to address chronic poverty and bring down the poverty level in the region where one of the provinces, Lanao del Sur, has a poverty incidence of 70 percent should be included in the master plan.
The roadmap must also think of ways how to facilitate the titling of lands to end conflicts which caused many “rido” or clan wars and establish a food security plan, which would make the region self-reliant thus ensuring available and affordable food. (Madeleine Miraflor)