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Lawmaker promotes self- sufficiency via agriculture
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Posted on May 26 2020
In food security matters, House vice speaker Lorenzo Deleon Guerrero (R-Saipan) believes that agriculture could help save the Commonwealth.
Speaking in an interview yesterday, Deleon Guerrero said that people need to start looking into agriculture, as it could supplement the CNMI’s major industry, tourism.
“It could be an…alternative industry for the Commonwealth,” he said. “We have fertile lands. …If we can produce our own vegetables, we can eliminate importing those products from across the world, and that way, we can be more self-sufficient.”
Gov. Ralph DLG Torres stressed last week the importance of agriculture to the CNMI’s economy and livelihood, and announced that he welcomes more agriculture on the island.
The House of Representatives passed last March Deleon Guerrero’s House Bill 21-108 that would rebuild and strengthen the agriculture sector in the CNMI, through the Kagman Commercial Farm Plot program. There are currently over 30 farm plots in Kagman.
“I want to look into the farm plots that can be made available for commercial farming. That way we can open it up for anybody who wants to promote commercial agriculture, and also, to the extent, grazing, raising cattle, pigs, goats, chickens, dairy products, you name it,” he said.
The bill transfers the authority to manage public lands from the Department of Public Lands to the Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Division of Agriculture for the Kagman Commercial Farm Plot program.
