Biggest production area for seeds to rise in Samar

MANILA, Philippines — The government is investing an initial P40 million to transform Samar as the country’s biggest seed production area. Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said the agency has begun its 2,000-hectare seed production project in San Roque as part of the Samar island rice development program.

The project is expected to supply the requirements of about 200,000 hectares of rice fields in Samar and Leyte.

“It is expected to turn San Roque’s primitive rice farming system into a model farming area which will use solar irrigation, farm machinery, laser-guided field leveller, drones and a computerized geo-tagging and data encoding for farmers participating in the program,” Piñol said.

Rice seed varieties like RC 218, RC 300 and RC 160, which are adaptable to the conditions and climate of Samar and Leyte will be planted.  These varieties command a high buying price in the market.

The DA and the Philippine Rice Research Institute will provide the farmers with technical training, equipment and loan support. Farm-to-market roads and irrigation systems will likewise be established.

DA will purchase the seeds produced in San Roque to be distributed to the rice farmers in Samar Island, including parts of Leyte.

The development of Samar as the new production area for rice is expected to be the first beneficiary of the tariffication law as part of the government’s efforts to boost supply of the country’s main staple.

By 2020, the SRDP is expected to contribute an estimated 1.2 million metric tons of paddy rice to the national production, which will make Samar Island as one of the major rice production areas of the country.

The SRDP is part of the DA’s Southern Swing Initiative, which aims to develop at least 300,000 hectares of new rice farms in the southern provinces of the country to compensate for the projected damage by typhoons every year on crops in northern Luzon.

Other areas identified in the Southern Swing initiative are Western Visayas, Mindoro and Palawan, Central Mindanao, Lanao del Sur, Bukidnon and Zamboanga Peninsula.

The targeted 300,000 hectares of new rice areas are expected to be fully developed by 2020.