Tawi-Tawi celebrates rich harvest of food crops

February 23, 2010


BONGAO, Tawi-Tawi – Farmers and residents in his province celebrated on Monday what they described as bountiful harvest of food crops in their maiden “Cassava and Banana Harvest Festival” here in this provincial capital town.

Despite its being on the list of the poorest provinces in the country, Tawi-Tawi Gov. Sadikul Sahali averred that food production flourishes in the province and the people here never run out of something to eat as amplified in the festival’s theme, “Nobody…Nobody Goes Hungry in Tawi-Tawi.”

Unknown to many, Tawi-Tawi has gained fame for its massive seaweeds production and rich marine resource, and has been attaining surplus production of cassava – a staple food here and in the neighboring provinces of Sulu and Basilan.

There are more than 19,000 hectares of arable lands planted with cassava in the province , producing close to 170,000 metric tons of harvest in a year.

Sangkula Tindick, the provincial agricultural officer, puts the province’s cassava surplus at around 40%. Some of which reach markets in Sabah, which is just few hours travel from Tawi-Tawi, and even in the municipality of Siasi in Sulu.

He said the province has been consistently producing excessive supply of cassava in the last seven to 10 years when they began advocating for the farming of the said crop and fruit trees such as mango throughout the province. Their office provided trainings and seedlings to the farmers.

Almost all of the major islands in the province have their cultivated lands planted with cassava, banana or mango, according to Tindick, adding that these lands used to be idle.

Even the famous Turtle Island was not taken out of the picture. The provincial agriculture office has launched a project few years back in the island, which Tindick dubbed as the “greening” of Turtle Island, encouraging locals to plant cassava and mango trees.

Their campaign has paid off really well, said Tindick. Now, the province’s people and economy will not just be relying on marine resource but on the similarly rich soil as well, he said. (bpiarmm)