MARAWI CITY, Lanao del Sur, April 2 (PIA) --- The Watershed Management Division-Mindanao Generation (WMD-MinGen) of the National Power Corporation (NPC) has been given a huge pat in the back by farmers in the two Lanao provinces for giving them assistance in setting-up agroforestry and reforestation plantations.
The farmers expressed their gratitude during the recent memorandum of agreement (MOA) signing between WMD-MinGen and qualified farmers for the establishment of plantations under the Family Approach Contract for Reforestation (FACR) and Agroforestry.
Under the contract, the NPC will provide the qualified farmers with planting materials and will pay for the labor costs on the establishment and maintenance of their forest or fruit tree plantation for a period of three (3) years.
Cabsaran Azis of Matungao, Lanao del Norte said he is very grateful to the government for implementing this kind of program citing that the program is really helpful to the livelihood of farmers in Lanao.
Azis is a retired Police Senior Inspector who applied his 2 (two) hectares of land for agroforestry plantation.
Ibrahim Mama of Butig, Lanao del Sur also expressed his appreciation to the WMD-MinGen for giving him training and teaching him the necessary skills required in the establishment of a “durian” plantation.
He said he was able to share to other small-scale farmers along Lake Lanao, the skills and techniques he learned from the various agroforestry trainings conducted by WMD-MinGen.
In 2007, Mama applied his two (2) hectares of land to the program and this year he applied additional two (2) hectares in the same program.
He thanked the government for the assistance and also advised other farmers, especially those qualified for the first time to the program, to persevere no matter how difficult it is to maintain the plantation.
Mama stressed that once the project will become successful it will definitely uplift the lives of the farmers in the area. (Apipa Bagumbaran/PIA-10)
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