Deep Roots

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The programme mainly aims to nurture harmony in areas

where rebellion was or is still existent through advocating

agriculture and fishery. As the extension arm of the Philippine

Department of Agriculture, ATI took the initiative to look into

the needs of the commanders and their respective groups.

This was made possible with the support of the local govern-

ment unit of Kauswagan, Lanao Del Norte in Mindanao.

ATI risked going the extra mile and passing through the

bumpy roads infested by unseen insurgents ready to attack at

any time in the mountain ranges of Lanao Del Norte. Setting

aside fear, the leaders’ camps and communities were visited by

the programme initiator to directly determine what assistance

the agency could provide. Extension services were then deliv-

ered through technical assistance and trainings on organic

agriculture, vegetable production, livestock and other capabil-

ity building and skills exercises that help in capacitating the

marginalized in the countryside. Post-training support and

education support for the out-of-school youth were likewise

dispensed through the programme.

The former rebel leaders, who are also heads of specific

Maranao ethnic groups, were first trained by ATI. Being the

forerunners emulated by their followers, the commanders were

taken to experience and see the developments made by other

successful farmers in the region. From the farm visits, leaders

were able to choose commodities that are suitable in their own

areas. The trips also enabled the former commanders to gain

insights into how they could improve their own lands.

The rebel leaders were shown that the real enemy is not the

Government but hunger. The real war is the combat against

poverty and illiteracy. ATI has not only promoted agricul-

ture and fishery among the former rebel families, but has also

provided non-formal education to the constituents of the

commanders by administering trainings. More importantly, a

number of out-of-school youth from the Maranao community

were given the chance to become scholars of ATI’s ladderized

training courses on agri-entrepreneurship. The ladderized

training course programme is a two-year agriculture-based

curriculum wherein 30 per cent concentrates on the theo-

retical aspect of agriculture entrepreneurship through lectures

while 70 per cent focuses on hands-on practicum where

students get first-hand experience of farming technologies in

the developed farms of productive farmers.

Among the former rebel leaders who are now catering to

students in their farms are Commander Malic Dimakuta and

Commander Aga Macabato. Through the Schools for Practical

Agriculture programme – also an innovation of Director Saliot

– former rebel leaders Malic and Aga have become farmer lectur-

ers. Their farms serve as the school while they act as the teachers

imparting knowledge learned from ATI’s trainings to students

taking up the ladderized programme. With the scheme, farmers

are able to earn more than enough from their honorarium as

teachers and from the lodging fees of the scholars. This goes to

prove that farming, provided with the appropriate techniques,

generates income; that indeed there is money in agriculture.

Bringing in technologies and promoting farming in the

war zones did not just convey peace and non-formal educa-

tion and eliminate hunger in the conflict communities that

committed to do so. More than that – family groups have

been uplifted and strengthened.

The endeavour has served as an avenue for achieving peace,

addressing hunger, providing education and alleviating poverty

in certain farming communities in Mindanao. To date, the

programme is assisting 12 leaders, of whom 10 are commander

returnees while two are still active rebels who have been encour-

aged to join the programme. They need not surrender their

firearms; the only thing asked from the rebel returnees and rebels

who wanted to be part of the programme is their change of heart

–a heart committed to farming and not to warfare. In a dialogue,

the rebel returnees convinced by the intervention have expressed

their commitment to the goals of the programme in promoting

Commander Ismael demonstrating rice technologies to his villagers

Youth scholars and villagers fishing in Commander Aga’s tilapia pond

Image: ATI-RTC 10

Image: Renelle Joy Tabinas

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