Mayor pushes for rubber production in idle upland areas in Makilala

By Aida C. Agad

Friday 6th of July 2012

KORONADAL CITY, July 6 (PIA) -- Makilala Mayor Rudy Caogdan said his administration’s flagship program, the Rubber Project, intends to utilize the almost 10,000 hectares of the town’s idle lands to be planted with rubber trees under his term.

“This is our vital weapon to pursue our town’s fight against poverty and climate change,” he said.

In his 2012 State of the Municipality Address (SOMA) delivered on July 2 in the presence of Sangguniang Bayan members, other local government officials and guests, Caogdan said the LGU has already provided about 867,452 budded rubber seedlings to landowners of the covered land areas.

These planting materials, he said, was planted to almost 1,879 hectares for the first five months of this year.

Caogdan said he is pushing for this project as he envisioned the rubber project to contribute to the town’s economy and livelihood of residents in the upland areas of Makilala, as well as to showcase the same to other upland areas in Region 12.

As a support mechanism and so as to protect the rubber project, Caogdan said, he has approved two municipal ordinances and ordered the immediate implementation of the regulation of the buying and selling of rubber and the accreditation of rubber nurseries in the Office of the Municipal Agriculturist.

The mayor said he is also advocating in some parts of region 12, the rubber development project. He was the keynote speaker of the 1st Sarangani Rubber Forum held on May 30, 2012 at Maitum, Sarangani.

Makilala is a first-class municipality in North Cotabato adjacent to Kidapawan City at the foot of the country's highest peak Mt. Apo.

Based on 2011 data from the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist, the municipality has the widest area devoted to rubber; of North Cotabato's 32,066.79 hectares planted to rubber, 6,988.47 hectares were in Makilala.

In June,this year, Makilala LGU in cooperation with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) 12 opened a technical vocational school specifically for rubber production. Makilala's rubber techvoc school is first in the country. (DED/ACAgad PIA12)