BUTUAN CITY- Misunderstanding over food and the hardship of life amidst government officials continuing denial that there is no food crisis in Caraga Region, a 44 year old step father using a sharp bolo slashes ear of his eight year old step son in Barangay Pagbahanan, Marihatag, Surigao del Sur yesterday.

Marihatag, Surigao del Sur police identified the suspect as Alejandro Rivas, 44 and resident of said barangay while the victim who is out of school was son of Rivas’ common-law wife. Dominga Olayon Sarte.

Police said Rivas using sharp bolo locally known as “sundang” slashed the ear of the minor victim after it failed to cook food for his lunch. The victim who used to be errand boy of the family even at minor tender age claimed reasoned there is no rice to cook.

This flared up the suspect who had just engaged heated argument with his common law wife over hardship of life.

Without a word, the suspect grabbed the victim and with the used of sharp bolo cut the ear of the boy then fled.

Like any other cases, in the same lines repeated over and over again but still unsolved police said they are still investigating the incident.

BUTUANCITY-Results of the round table discussions as an aftermath of the recently concluded Caraga Food Crises Summit among sponsoring members of the Butuan Press Club showed government is not doing enough to solve rice crisis in Caraga Region in particular and the country in general.

The observation was made following admissions of officials and representatives of the different concerned government agencies who participated in the Summit Friday held at a local hotel and convention center here that Caraga Region in past years is officially deficit by 2-M cavans of rice per year to feed its growing population.

Participants see the main culprits; Idle lands that are supposedly to be tilled for food production were left unattended for years because of slow resolution of courts in civil cases, slow in resolving land disputes, greediness of some owners including value problem of land tillers/ workers, high cost of rice farming inputs, lack of investment capital, high fertilizer cost and inadequate irrigation water supply caused by dilapidated irrigation facilities.

And the most saddening cause of low farm production according to summit participants were the weaning or worsening lack interest of sons and daughters of aging farmers in continuing to till or cultivate their rice lands.

“Young adults mostly children of farmers migrate to urban areas hoping to land jobs and left their aging farmer-parents to till their lands thus rice production is affected”, participants in unison chorused.

Butuan Press Club officials and members said that when Caraga Region was created in 1995 by law passed in Congress most government agencies then shared same vision and mission that is for Caraga Region who has rich, fertile soil and vast agricultural lands to become not only food sufficient but also the food basket of Mindanao if not in the whole country.

In the 1998 Caraga Development Master Plan, concerned government agencies claimed the region has its most distinct advantage compared to others in agricultural production that is, it is typhoon-free all year round.

But press club members asserted the vision and mission were never achieved and attained and worst as its population grows in the thirteen years span, the rice deficit has been growing each year.

“Truly government agencies in Caraga Region have not done enough over the years in solving the food deficiencies it experienced over and over again” Butuan Press Club President Felix Villacastin said.

The forum results also took noticed of idled upland areas under the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ Integrated Social Forestry (ISF) Program allegedly abused by some unscrupulous DENR personnel who distributed the lands among themselves but named it to their relatives and close friends some to their children to avoid detection that may lead to legal problems in the future.

Under the ISF program, huge public forest lands are divided and distributed to upland farmers or individuals with a condition that beneficiaries who received three to five hectares each of ISF lands will develop it into a productive agriculture or agri-forestry endeavor.

DENR issues Certificate of Stewardship to Integrated Social Forestry beneficiary subject for renewal every 25 years.

“Under present arrangement of the ISF program renewal will now be applied before the National Commission on Indigenous People (NCIP) because ISF lands are now being claimed by indigenous people as part of their ancestral lands”, the forum participants complained,

“Growing thousands of hectares of idled ancestral lands left unproductive for years have also been a present perennial problem, an added liability instead of an asset to the government”, participants echoed their sentiments.

Out of 1,884,697 hectares of total land area of Caraga Region, the region has 1,342,108 hectares of forest lands with only 542, 949 hectares of alienable and disposable lands.

The region has 452,616 hectares of agricultural lands of which 42.8 percent of it were developed or tilled while others left were classified as open spaces. And out of 102,098 hectares of rice lands Caraga Region has, only 52,002 hectares are irrigated or barely 50.19%.

The rest of the region’s rice lands only produced or harvest rice once a year.

Agro-Industrial lands is only composed of 58, 396 hectares or barely 3.1% of the total land area, grassland is composed of 193, 301 hectares, fishponds and swamps 13, 785 hectares, tree plantations only composed of 19,221 hectares and shrub lands 100,180 hectares.

Mangroves are composed of 13,891 hectares, sand/quarry 593 hectares, industrial lands 5,750 hectares and military/naval reservation areas 330 hectares.

Disputes due to problem of land titling like double or triple land titling has also been a perennial problem in Caraga region left unsolved through the years.