Bukidnon, Philippines

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews / May 16) – Bukidnon is losing its rice and corn farms at alarming rate because of the increasing expansion of banana, pineapple and sugarcane plantations, an agriculture official said.

Engr. Alson Quimba, Bukidnon provincial agriculture officer-in-charge, said the province “is still a staple food basket in Mindanao but if left unchecked, the fast expansion could affect food security”.

“The increase is below rapid rate but faster than gradual,” Quimba told MindaNews, saying that this was how fast the change in the conversion of the farms from the staple to cash crops. He said though that he could not provide the data yet as his office was still collating updated statistics.

Bukidnon grows corn, sugarcane, rice, vegetables and banana and pineapples.

He estimated, however, the minimum annual conversion to be at least 50 hectares a year.

He said this was “a very conservative figure considering the conversion is visible in the changing landscape”.

Quimba said banana and pineapple producers have eyed high-yielding areas of rice, corn and vegetable in their expansion programs due to existing good irrigation. by Walter I. Balane

MindaNews

MALAYBALAY CITY – Farmers’ groups have called on the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to cancel its lease agreements with big landed families in Bukidnon for alleged violations.

Oscar Maniego, provincial chair of ALYANSA Bukidnon (Alliance of Landless Farmers and Rural Poor in Bukidnon), a group backed by Task Force Mapalad, said Thursday that cancellation is the call of the day for at least 2,500 hectares of forest land used for pasture.

He said the national government has to reinvestigate the alleged violations by the Fortich and Ocaya families in their Forest Land Grazing Lease Agreements (FLGLA) with DENR.

The farmers picketed in front DENR’s Cagayan de Oro regional office on May 14 to voice out their stand by holding a die-in picket and a noise barrage, Maniego said.

Maniego said Corazon Galinato, DENR regional technical director for forestry, engaged in a dialogue with the farmers. But he said Galinato only promised to file a report of their complaints to the DENR central office.

The farmers demanded the cancellation so that they could apply for a Community-based Forest Management Agreement (CBFMA) or agrarian reform coverage over the appropriate areas. Walter I. Balane

MindaNews

LANDLESS farmers from Bukidnon staged a die-in in front of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in Macabalan Wednesday.

The act aims to urge officials to cancel the leases of the huge landholdings of the Fortich and Ocaya families.

Some 200 farmers said the two families violated the Forest Land Grazing Lease Agreement (FLGLA) they entered with the DENR.

“DENR regional office should stop casting a blind eye on the violations committed by these FLGLA holders,” said Oscar Maniego, provincial chairperson of Alyansa Bukidnon-Task Force Mapalad.

If the agreement will be voided, Maniego said this will pave the way for the government to distribute 2,000 hectares of land owned by the Fortich and Ocaya families to 1,500 landless farmers. By Ma. Cecilia L.Rodriguez

Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro 

MALAYBALAY CITY, Philippines - Asian Hills Bank, a rural bank based in this city, will open 10 new branches this year in time for its 10th anniversary celebration.

Erlow Talatala, Asian Hills Bank marketing manager, said there are, at present, seven branches with two newly opened offices in sugar-rich town Quezon and in Valencia City’s.

Mr. Talatala said most of these branches are new since the central bank approved Asian Hills’s application for new branches only last year.

The bank has offices here, in Villanueva, Misamis Oriental; Kabacan, North Cotabato; Carmen, Cagayan de Oro City; and -Opol, Misamis Oriental.

The bank is eyeing to open branches in the cities of Gingoog, Iligan, Davao, Cebu and Manila within the next two years. “Definitely, we will open in Manila next year,” Mr. Talatala said.

GMANews.TV