Better road reduces hauling cost of Cotabato farmers

Carmen, North Cotabato – Double hauling of produce used to be the practice of farmers here until a better road access was made available.

“We cannot directly deliver our produce to our buyers as no vehicle can enter our farm areas with our narrow and oftentimes muddy and slippery road,” said corn farmer Jane Saberola.

Saberola along with other farmers are renting horses, which owners charged P25.00 per sack. The delivery though was only up to 2.5 kilometer pickup point where products will then be transferred to a hauling vehicle with additional charge of P10.00 per sack.

“All in all we spend at least P35.00 per sack excluding payment for laborer which usually charge 30 centavos per sack,” she said.

Aside from hauling cost, Saberola also lamented how inaccessible road affected the quality of their produce and farm income.

“During heavy rains vehicles cannot enter to our pickup point as the road is too muddy. This left us with no option but to leave our corn products in the waiting area which sometimes would take several days usually drenched from rain,” she said adding that once drenched their corn were damaged by molds and can no longer be sold.

But things are now changed for the better with the rehabilitation of 14.8-kilometer farm-to-market road in Barangay Kibudtungan and Misupa in Carmen town.  It covers 6,895-hectare farm areas mostly planted to corn, rubber, rice and coconuts of which Sabelora’s farm is included.

The said road network is a project is under the rural infrastructure component of the Mindanao Rural Development Program (MRDP), a special project of the Department of the Agriculture (DA).

The double hauling practice is now a thing of the past as hauling trucks can now enter remote farms and enable farmers to directly deliver their produce to the market.

“The expensive hauling fee was significantly reduced to half of the amount and mishandling of our products was minimized which is a big boost to our income,” Sabelora said while sharing her plans to expand farm production.

DA regional director for Region 12 Amalia Datukan said better road access does not only increase productivity and income but also motivates rural people to work.

“Carmen was heavily affected by arm conflict in past, any livelihood project will certainly help them recover and sustain peace and development efforts,” she said. (Noel T. Provido/DA-MRDP)