Minda calls for more attention to agri

AMIDST the boom of construction industry in the urban area, Mindanao Development Authority (Minda) official said there should also be equal attention given to the agriculture industry in the rural areas as neglect of the said industry may drag down the growth of the economy as well.

As more and more hotels, malls, and establishments are being built in the urban areas of the city, those residing in the rural areas leave their homes since more jobs are being generated there.

Further, Minda deputy executive director assistant secretary Romeo Montenegro, what used to be a huge area of land usually is being decreased to a smaller area of land and converted into use of other industries as no one would supervise anymore and some millenials would not opt to go into farming.

“It’s important that we put premium in our agricultural development in Mindanao because our over-all agenda is to create jobs. That’s the basic gauge of whether or not government or this administration has been able to really do a difference. In Mindanao, we need to create more jobs particularly in the agriculture sector because nearly 60 percent of the jobs in Mindanao are in the agriculture sector. Nearly 50 percent of the value adding of our economy in Mindanao is in the agribusiness sector. While what we are seeing in Mindanao is a transition towards services sector, in terms of our economic make -up, we need to continue to push for the development of our agriculture sector,” Montenegro said.

He added the direction of the policy of agriculture should be to create economic activities in the rural areas including finding out the viable commodity in specific areas that can be developed into value-adding products and expectedly to create more jobs.

Montenegro also said they are still continuing monitoring for their Cacao Double Up program which includes the mission of increasing areas planted by cacao in Mindanao, from 30,000 to 40,000 hectares to 100,000 by 2020.

He said this is only one of the various expansion of the agricultural sector that they are currently working on, given the global demand for cacao beans.

MACKY LIM Nearly 100 distributors of Rising Yuera, Inc. from the different parts of Mindanao as well as Rising Yuera, Inc. executives from Manila joined the motorcade caravan yesterday, December 8, with an advocacy anchored after organic farming for better living.