Caraga InFocus – April 18-24, 2020

Page 32

Provincial News

A sweet start for Manobo potato farmers By Rhea Abao

SURIGAO CITY, Surigao del Norte - Food aid continues to pour in for displaced port workers at the Port of Surigao as food packs were again provided for them, courtesy of the Siargao Islands Institute of Technology (SIIT).

The sweet potato (Ipomea batatas) or locally named as “kamote,” once-touted “a poor man’s crop,” is now regarded as a “cash crop” for a Manobo tribe in Carmen, Surigao del Sur. Despite the limitations that each person could make brought by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the Mag-uumang Manobo sa

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Hinapoyan Association (MAMASAHI) turned the adversity into their advantage as they ventured to sweet potato farming. The fifty-member association is a recipient of the Department of Agriculture – Caraga’s Special Area for Agriculture Development (SAAD) Program. Last August 2019, they received 120,000 sweet potato cuttings which they planted in a three-hectare


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