The Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) are collaborating to transform a 10,000-hectare idle portion of the Kibaritan military reservation in Bukidnon into a rubber plantation.

National Agribusiness Corp. (Nabcor) Chairman and Agriculture Undersecretary Jesus Emmanuel Paras told Secretary Arthur Yap that the preliminary work for the joint venture has been completed. Nabcor is an investment arm of the DA.

However, the project may face serious problems from agrarian reform beneficiaries since up 16,000 hectares of land covered by the military reservation have been awarded to them through Certificates of Landownership Award (CLOAs).

Defense Secretary and presidential hopeful Gilbert Teodoro has endorsed the project as a showcase of peace and development efforts in Mindanao.

“The project documents such as the project proposal, area development plan and the memorandum of agreement between top officials of the DA and AFP are now being finalized for signing in mid September,” Paras reported to  Yap.

Paras agreed to the conversion of 10,000 hectares of the 42,000-hectare reservation into a corporate farm growing rubber. There is also room to expand the farm to 16,000 hectares.

A joint DA-AFP team will inspect the area to fine-tune the implementing guidelines under the plan and validate the projected investment requirements and viability analysis made by the brass. AFP said the investment would amount to P70 million over seven years of planting.

Part of the venture is multiple cropping, with cash crops like corn and coffee cultivated in the same plantation. An Army engineering brigade based in Bukidnon may likewise be tapped to build access roads to the plantation and even irrigation facilities.

Soil samples from the first 1,000 hectares to be planted on in the first year of the project have been taken for analysis to find out if corn, coffee, and cassava are suitable for cultivation.

Many farmers are also working on the land based on an agreement with the camp commander to make idle patches of the property to be used for food production.

In a meeting with the farmers, the project proponents promised the temporary occupants that they will be taken in as workers once the plantation starts operations.

The project is deemed to be a showcase in making idle sections of military properties from Luzon to Mindanao productive.

Earnings from the plantations to be established in such idle properties will be earmarked to sustain AFP's integrated logistical requirements for training, morale and welfare of military personnel, acquisition and maintenance of mission essential equipment and showcase production technology for rubber and other agricultural crops.