Lanao del Sur to Pilot ExportQuality Mindanao Halal Rice Production A pilot project in Lanao del Sur promotes knowledge sharing between farmers to produce premiumquality halal rice. Photo credit: Mindanao Development Authority. A program that promotes technology sharing between Christian and Muslim farmers will produce halal rice in Mindanao. In a Facebook post, Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) Chairman Emmanuel F. Piñol said the Salam Brotherhood Farming Program will grow premium rice varieties on about 200 hectares of land in Taraka, Lanao del Sur using two solar-powered irrigation systems. “The production of Halal Premium Rice in Taraka and other neighboring towns could make Lanao del Sur a major producer of a commodity with huge market potential in other provinces in the Bangsamoro Region and neighboring Muslim Caraga INFOCUS
MinDA
countries like Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, and Malaysia,” he said.
live around Lake Lanao. Rice farming is their main livelihood.
Lanao del Sur is a province in the Philippines located in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), one of the poorest regions in the country. BARMM was created in 2019 as part of a peace agreement to end nearly 5 decades of conflict between the government and secessionists.
Promoting peace, strengthening food security
The Maranao, the largest Muslim cultural-linguistic group in the country,
Piñol said he designed the program when he was governor of Cotabato province in 2002 to “bring together Muslim and Christian farmers in a technologysharing strategy” and ease tensions between them. The province is a major food basket in the SOCCSKSARGEN region of Mindanao. The Cotabato program August 28-September 3, 2021 |
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