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| Women in War-Scarred Villages Learn Eco-Friendly Farming |
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| Thursday, 04 February 2010 07:13 |
  IN A sign that more farmers are hitching up to the call to practice sustainable and environmentally-friendly agriculture, the various rural “peace and development communities” (PDCs) in Western Mindanao are acquiring technologies provided by the United Nations Development Programme through its ACT for Peace’s Bio-Intensive Gardening- Food Always In The Home (BIG FAITH) project. Thusly last January 26 – 29 some 30 farmers and farmers’ wives from various PDCs in the region attended a training to acquire capacity-building as well as skills in ecological farm planning and production. The training was held at the Barangay Hall of Mangusu, one of the 10 PDCs existing in Zamboanga City. Hurayda Malik, PDC coordinator for the city, said the initial four-day training will be extended to include two more training sessions on February 22-24 and March 23, all in the same venue with the same participants. Participants come from PDCs located in Basilan, Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga Sibugay, Zamboanga del Norte and the city. The second training will deal with skills in nursery management, herb production and vermicomposting. The third will be on “green poultry and livestock”, Hurayda said. A fourth training will be conducted in April for former members of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) residing at the newly-developed PDC village in Eleven Islands. The training will be on aquaculture production. The techno transfer project is jointly sponsored by ACT for Peace and GreendMinds, a Cagayan de Oro-based non-government organization, Malik revealed. It involves much hands-on activities by the participants. GreenMinds was organized and is headed by a team of agriculture professionals who hail from indigenous communities in Northern Mindanao. The NGO has been propagating eco-friendly agri and aqua technologies throughout Mindanao in the past eight seven years, with the ultimate aim of strengthening the economic security of rural communities, said GreenMinds development consultant Fernando “Datu Dalangpaman” Bermoy, who headed its training team to Mangusu. In December last year, ACT for Peace also sponsored two simultaneous and separate trainings in sewing for over 60 women members belonging to the PDCs in Labuan and Limpapa barangays in the city, Malik disclosed. The women learned how to sew garments, bags, novelty items and linen made of textile. The hands-on training was conducted by trainors from the Technology Education Service and Development Authority (TESDA). Aside from the training, ACT for Peace also donated sewing machines and provided start-up business capital to their women’s associations. Every PDC has a women’s association as one of its four regular organizations, Malik said. The PDCs have been organized in villages that experienced high levels of armed hostilities between MNLF fighters and government troops in the over 30-year period preceding the signing of a comprehensive peace agreement between the Bangsamoro rebels and the Philippine government in 1996.  |