Public land in Compostela Valley reserved for growing of firewood, crops

By: DJ Yap - 10 years ago

MANILA, Philippines—Fifty hectares of public land in Compostela Valley will be developed for the propagation of fuel wood as well as commercial crops to provide livelihood to farmers and curb the wanton cutting of trees for fuel by agrarian communities, officials said on Tuesday.

The regional offices of the departments of Agrarian Reform, Agriculture, and Environment and Natural Resources in Davao recently forged a partnership to establish the project “Fuel Wood Production and Livelihood Project in Agrarian Reform Areas” in Pantukan town.

The project will involve the establishment of a nursery, in which some 80,000 seedlings of various fuel wood tree species will be gown under the auspices of the Araibo Agrarian Reform Multi-Purpose Cooperative, the DAR said.

The seedlings will be planted in a 50-hectare area, and the cooperative will be paid P3.60 per seedling, totalling around P300,000, it said in a news release.

“To ensure the trees’ survival, maintenance and protection activities such as weeding, cultivation and seedling replacement for the first two months shall be carried out by the members of the cooperative,” the DAR said.

As project partner, the DENR will assist the provincial officers of the DAR and the DA in the identification of sites, survey and mapping, establishment of the nursery, and, if necessary, maintenance activities.

The DA on the other hand will provide additional seedlings of high-value crops to be given to the agrarian reform beneficiaries.