MORE NEWS, KALINGA

Cordillera body wants rice milling done inside region

TABUK CITY, Kalinga – Rice milling must be done within the Cordillera to allow greater benefits for the local residents and would assure rice self-sufficiency of the provinces in the coming months.

This is position of the Regional Development Council in the Cordillera after it ordered the Department of Agriculture to study and provide recommendations on the promotion of rice milling in the region to prevent farmers from shipping out their palay produce outside the Cordillera.

According to the RDC, the establishment of milling facilities in rice-producing areas such as Kalinga would translate to greater benefits for the people and farmers because they will be producing their own rice supply rather than selling their palay outside the region and buying rice from the neighboring provinces.

The Cordillera had a total palay production of 436,311 metric tons last year and such production is expected to dramatically increase this year due to improved rice yields from rice farmers in the different provinces.

Due to the inadequacy of rice milling facilities in the region, farmers sell their palay to nearby provinces of Regions I and II.

While the cordillera exports palay to other regions, it has to buy rice from other regions which is rather costly on the part of the people.

The RDC said rice milling is an essential aspect of agricultural development, thus, it must be put in place in the Cordillera to complete the cycle of ice production so that the people will realize a significant reduction in the price of commercial rice compared to the present state where they are obliged to buy milled rice from nearby provinces.

Kalinga is said to be the rice granary of the Cordillera due to its vast tracks of rice production areas.

Once rice milling will be in place in the region, rice farmers will now have the chance to store sufficient supply of rice which could provide the rice demands of other parts of the region thereby foregoing the excessive expenditure of buying rice from nearby provinces.

Furthermore, rice farmers will have the chance to earn more income for their families aside from making the Cordillera rice self-sufficient in the coming years.

Cordillera farmers produce various kinds of rice such as the hairloom rice of Kalinga and Ifugao which has gained access in the international market despite institutional and production gaps hounding the full implementation of the export of the indigenous rice varieties.

Aside from the “unoy” rice variety from Kalinga and the “tinawon” variety being produced in Ifugao, exporters are eying six other native varieties from Mountain province which as export products which would boost the livelihood of farmers in the upland terraces while providing additional sources of rice for the people so that they will not be dependent on the expensive commercial rice and the controlled supply of government-subsidized rice. -- Dexter A. See


DOE allows geothermal project in Kalinga town

TABUK CITY, Kalinga — The Department of Energy has given the go-signal to two local firms to prospect and tap geothermal energy in Pasil town, this province. Natividad Sugguiyao, National Commission on Indigenous Peoples provincial director, told the media that the geothermal service contract, signed recently by DOE Secretary Angelo Reyes, allowed Aragorn Power and Energy Corp. and Guidance Management Corp. to jointly explore for geothermal energy in a 26,250-hectare area in the municipalities of Pasil, Tinglayan, and Lubuagan, all in Kalinga.

Sugguiyao said, however, that although the GSC covers also Tinglayan and Lubuagan, the exploration will be done only in Pasil until such time that the tribes in the ancestral domains will give their free and prior informed consent (FPIC) to the activity.

Sugguiyao said that to date, seven affected tribes in Pasil have given their FPICs as the affected tribes in the ancestral domain in Tinglayan and Lubuagan want to study further the project.

"It’s not that they do not want the project. They just want to see if the project has no adverse effects on the community and want to be assured they are making the right decision," she said.

She also said that the GSC gives APEC and GMC the right to explore for geothermal energy in the area and, if warranted by the exploration results, to produce geothermal energy for 50 years.

Sugguiyao called the project the biggest investment made in this province in recent years. Pasil Mayor James Edduba said that if the estimated 60-megawatt potential of the area is tapped, the geothermal operation would not only be the biggest in the country but it would make the Philippines surpass the United States in use of geothermal power.

Aside from prospecting for geothermal energy, APEC is also involved in petroleum exploration in the Cagayan basin, while GMC holds the GSC for the Amacan geothermal prospect in Compostela Valley Province in Mindanao and two coal-operating contracts. -- EAJ