by Rene V. Carbayas
ISABELA CITY, Basilan, Oct 8 (PIA) – Public
and private partnerships once again emerged as important strategy in improving
people’s lives. This was evident at the recently concluded First Agri-Business
Summit in Lantawan where some fifty farmers of Lantawan municipality gathered
to enhance capacity and improve the agriculture sector.
The farmers’ summit was part of the Mindanao Bridging Leaders Program of
the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) that trains key officials in government
in emulating the bridging leadership (BL) framework of ownership, co-ownership,
and co-creation for bridging societal divides.
The BL is a theory on leadership for attaining social objectives and
outcomes. According to AIM, the key to the leadership concept is the capacity
of the individual to move from a personal understanding and ownership of a
social issue to a collective action to resolve the issue.
A third-class municipality in Basilan,
Lantawan was named as the poorest municipality in the province. It has 25
barangays and generally an agricultural community. Wherein, nine barangays are
concentrated to agriculture and part forest area while the remaining sixteen
barangays lay in coastal areas.
While the town is an agricultural community,
many are still poor. It is for this reason that Myra Alih, the science and
technology provincial director of the Department of Science and Technology in
Basilan, also an AIM-BL fellow, designed an engagement program to help farmers
improve their lives.
Alih said that to alleviate Lantawan farmers
from poverty, there is a need to capacitate them in sustainable farming
technologies and continued education and value formation to empower them in
engaging with government agencies and private sectors.
The first step, she said, was consulting with
her guiding coalition team composed of local government officials from the
departments of agriculture, trade and industry, provincial planning, interior
and local government, labor, the Philippine Information Agency and non-
government organizations, such as the Nagdilaab Foundation and the Mindanao
Autonomous College.
With the help of her guiding coalition team,
the 1st Agri-Business Summit in Lantawan was held from October 1-6,
2012 at Tairan in Lantawan.
Organized farmers from ten pilot barangays
attended, namely: Tairan, Lower Bañas, Upper Bañas, Lower Manggas, Upper
Manggas, Canibungan, Baungis, Matikang, and Atong-Atong.
During the summit, the farmers were oriented
on the bridging leadership framework as a multi-stakeholder collaboration which
was facilitated by Miriam L. Suacito of Nagdilaab Foundation. Municipal
Agriculture Officer Dr. Julita B. Larracochea, on the other hand, presented the
present reality of the agriculture sector in Lantawan which she described as
relatively productive yet many farmers are still struggling.
The farmers were also introduced to
biotechnology and rubber technology, to include mushroom culture, organic
farming, animal and livestock-raising, multi-cropping farming, marketing, and
organizational management.
The highlight of the summit was the
organization of a federated association of farmers in Lantawan which will
become the official organization that will represent the Lantawan farmers in
local special bodies on agriculture and policy formulation.