Marijuana-growing in the highlands will give way soon to sericulture, organic livestock-raising, ginger and broom production, authorities said.
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Patricio Ananayo, agribusiness chief of the Department of Agriculture in the Cordillera Autonomous Region, said income-generating options will be piloted next month in four localities.
“We will farm out the livelihood assistance to several remote villages in the towns of Kapangan, Bakun and Kibungan in Benguet, and Tinglayan in Kalinga to show marijuana producers that there are much better sources of livelihood instead of continuously cultivating the illegal hemp,” he said.
Ananayo said Bakun opted for silkworms under the supervision of the Fiber Industry Development Authority along with 150 head of cattle as projects for the locality.
“The livelihood assistance will be given in kind,” he said, noting the arrangement made during earlier consultations with stakeholders.
Ananayo said Kapangan and Kibungan chose large-scale production of ginger and brooms with Tinglayan going for free-range swine to meet the rapidly growing market not only in the Cordillera but in neighboring Cagayan Valley and Ilocos Region.
“The recipient barangays have been identified both by the Philippine National Police and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency as being prone to the production of marijuana.”
But Ananayo noted that no villages are named publicly to keep them from being stereotyped as outlaws.
The Cordillera has been labeled as supplier of high-grade cannabis sativa being trafficked locally and across Southeast Asia. - (Manila Standard Today / by Dexter A. See)
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