Cagayan de Oro City (22 April) -- Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Acting Governor Ansaruddin Alonto-Adiong has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) for the implementation of the Food-for-Assets Program in the provinces of Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao.
The Food-for-Assets program seeks to restore and rehabilitate small-scale agricultural infrastructure in poor and food-insecure areas in Central Mindanao through food-for-work and food-for-training.
It will improve farmers' productivity through the provision of food in exchange for labor on projects such as irrigation schemes, farm-to-market roads, communal gardening and tree planting.
Food will also be allocated to support relevant skills training in agriculture. The WFP will provide about 9,700 metric tons of rice and 970 metric tons of beans for work and training to some 1.1 million people from smallholder farming communities.
WFP Country Director Stephen Anderson said they are extremely encouraged by the ongoing collaboration with the ARMM government for the improvement of household food security in the two (2) ARMM provinces.
According to Anderson, improving food production will mean both better nutrition and a better standard of living for the poor, many of whom remain chronically food-insecure.
"Our focus will be on increasing crop production through the rehabilitation of irrigation schemes, storage facilities and feeder roads," he added.
The Food-for-Assets program is a project funded by the European Union (EU) through its "?1 Billion Food Facility".
The EU Food Facility aims to encourage a positive response from the agricultural sector in targeted countries, to respond rapidly and directly to mitigate the negative effects of volatile food prices on local populations and to strengthen the productive capacities and the governance of the agricultural sector to enhance the sustainability of interventions.
The EU-funded food-for-assets activities are being rolled out in targeted food-insecure communities in the provinces of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Lanao del Norte, North Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat.
"We are also extremely grateful for the generous support from the European Union for this programme which benefits over a million people from poor farming communities in conflict-affected areas of Mindanao," the WFP Country Director further said.
Since 2006, Food-for-Assets projects in Mindanao have created or rehabilitated important infrastructure such as solar crop dryers, small-scale irrigation and access roads.
Women have also benefited from literacy training, from support in using improved seed varieties and from effective parenting classes.
Moreover, the WFP has succeeded in increasing and sustaining school attendance and increasing the number of women and their children making use of maternal and child health services. (WFP/PIA-Marawi City)
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