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The Talaandigs of Bukidnon, blessed with a beautiful place and a cool climate conducive for farming, are facing difficulty as their farmlands, which used to be so fertile, now need chemicals to get good produce.
Found mostly in the slopes (“andig” in the vernacular means “slope”) of Mindanao’s highest mountains – the Kitanglad and Kalatungan ranges in the municipalities of Talakag and Lantapan – the Talaandigs bear the brunt of deforestation and overfarming by people from the lowlands and, lately, by their own kin, who rely heavily on chemicals and fertilizers.
Thus, harvests have dwindled in the Talaandig areas, known as among the major sources of vegetables of Northern Mindanao. (Froilan Gallardo / MindaNews, with support from Internews’ Earth Journalism Network and Photojournalists’ Center of the Philippines)
