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A Philippine municipality, Arakan in North Cotabato, once again partnered with Southeast Asia Regional Community Empowerment (SEARICE), this time to craft the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of its newly adopted agriculture code.

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It may be recalled that in 2013, various stakeholders in the municipality—including local farmers and local government officials—came together to craft an agriculture code, with the assistance of SEARICE.

 

In 2017, the output of that writeshop—the Agriculture Code of Arakan—was adopted by the municipality. The Arakan Agriculture Code is deemed special because it went through a multi-stakeholder and collaborative process, with the local farmers playing a major role.

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In an article, Atty. Mario Maderazo who facilitated the process of crafting the code shared how the process empowered the farmer participants. 

"The exercise opened a new perspective to the farmers who attended the workshop—that they themselves can be part of the formal process of law-making—and plucked them from the margins of anonymity and powerlessness, believing that law should be written in stone by the learned and powerful few," he said.
 

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