Maguindanao pupil tops poster contest

COTABATO CITY—An 11-year-old schoolgirl from Maguindanao province won the national mosaic poster-making contest organized by the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the United Nations-World Food Organization for the World Food Day.

Makmod Mending Jr., agriculture secretary of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), said that on Thursday, Gov. Mujiv Hataman feted Jessa Mae Bajan of Tenorio Elementary School in Datu Odin Sinsuat town, Maguindanao, for bagging the national prize of trophy and cash for her winning mosaic poster.

Using agriculture and fishery materials, Bajan created her piece to suit the contest’s theme, “Family Farming: Feeding the World, Caring for the Earth.”

Her work initially made it to the best of five ARMM provincial entries from Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, said Kadiguia Rakman-Abdullah, information head of ARMM’s Department of Agriculture and Fisheries.

World Food Day

Bajan’s poster became the official entry of the ARMM to the national contest on World Food Day (Oct. 16) for which all entries from the country’s 17 regions were adjudged by Philippine agriculture and UN-FAO officials at the Department of Agriculture’s compound in Quezon City.

Made of indigenous materials, Bajan said what she showed in her poster was the essence of agriculture and fishery to nationhood, food and human security. Nash B. Maulana, Inquirer Mindanao