Rice as war casualty

CHEERS TO the Philippine Daily Inquirer for telling readers how conflicts in certain areas in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) result in lower agricultural productivity.

“A continuing cycle of violence in the is turning farmers in the region into what one official said was a ‘vanishing species,’ and pushing the region’s agriculture further down, losing up to 10,000 metric tons of rice in just one year of conflict,” said the March 4 article “Cost of war: 10,000 metric tons of rice lost in a year”.

The paper reported that despite the clashes and the displacement of people, ARMM officials are looking for ways to boost the local farmers’ incomes and the region’s agriculture output.

Rice production in the ARMM, ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman told the paper, could fall drastically in the next decade if peace did not become real and permanent.