MARAWI CITY – The provincial government of Lanao del Sur is embarking on a modern farming technology to spur massive agricultural development in the province where 85 percent of arable lands remained idle for decades due to peace and order problem and perceived government neglect.

Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal “Bombit” Al. Adiong Jr. has tasked provincial agriculturist Mohamadali Macaraya to assess the viability in the province regarding the “seed growth,” which is said to be the country’s first nano-technology fertilizer touted to accelerate the growth of all plants three times faster than other farm inputs.

Adiong and Macaraya met here over the weekend with a team from the Gcore Group, a Metro Manilabased company led by inventor Glenn Castillo which has invented more than 500 technology products including the seed growth liquid fertilizer.

After their meeting with the two officials, Gcore consultant Rodrigo Guerrero and Mindanao-based seed growth user and promoter Philip Revaula demonstrated the application of the product on some rubber and durian tree seedlings at a nursery of the Adiong family in nearby Ditsaan-Ramain town.

“In three days, you will see the big difference between the plants applied with the modern fertilizer and the rest,” Guerrero assured Adiong.

The seedling nursery is stocked with thousands of rubber and durian trees earmarked for planting to 500-hectare and 10-hectare land properties of the Adiong family, which would lead the intensified farming campaign by example, Macaraya told the Manila Bulletin.

As this developed, Macaraya said the governor has directed all concerned local offices to “leave no stone unturned in planting rice, corn, banana and other crops fitting to all idle lands in the province.”

Macaraya said the province has less than 285,000 hectares of arable lands including farms that had been abandoned during the dark days of Martial Law by farmers, who shifted to trade business in urban centers like Metro Manila.

The intensified agriculture development campaign has been conceived in time with the massive construction of farm-to-market roads and highway networks all over Lanao del Sur, Macaraya said.

The road projects include the P770-million rehabilitation and concreting of the Lake Lanao circumferential road and the P10-million road-opening along the four rice-producing towns in the province, Adiong said.