Food sufficiency targets on track

MANILA, Philippines - This refers to a news item in the May 3 issue of the Philippine Star titled “ Low agri output GMA’s biggest failure - Diokno.”

Contrary to the observations by former budget secretary Benjamin Diokno, President Arroyo has actually reversed the decades-old official neglect of the farm sector with her record public investments in agriculture and fisheries since she took over in 2001.

The sustained, unprecedented level of farm spending under the Arroyo administration has ensured agriculture and fisheries growth despite international developments that have lately hurt global farm yields.

In the palay subsector, for example, growth has averaged 3.07% on the Arroyo watch as against 2.89% over the 1990-2000 period. In fact, annual rice imports have been gradually declining despite the ever-increasing population, which is proof that our country is on its way to rice sufficiency in the long haul.

We at the Department of Agriculture (DA) are trying our best to keep President Arroyo’s food sufficiency targets on track with the intensified implementation of President Arroyo’s FIELDS program to attain food security and sufficiency over the medium term. FIELDS stands for the six areas of agriculture into which the government is pouring its support, namely, Fertilizer, Irrigation and other rural infrastructure, Extension services and education for farmers, Loans, Dryers and other postharvest facilities, and Seeds and other genetic materials.

However, the government cannot hit its food security and sufficiency targets overnight because of a host of factors beyond the DA’s control, among them climate change, unbridled population growth, and the limited agricultural areas.

Last year’s devastating typhoons from “Ondoy” to “Santi” and this year’s El Niño or the dry spell are proofs that freak weather patterns induced by climate change are now the most serious threats to global farm production.

The DA has been intensifying its implementation of FIELDS to sustain the growth of Philippine agriculture and fisheries amid the threats posed not only by climate change but of increasing global free trade as well.

Under the Fertilizer component of the FIELDS, the DA has so far distributed 14,113,947 kg of organic fertilizers and other soil ameliorants such as Bio-N, Vital-N and Bio-con to help farmers reduce the cost of inputs and increase their productivity; conducted Salt Fertilization Projects (SFP), in which 65,979 has were fertilized with almost 7 million coconut trees benefiting 66,445 farmers; distributed 2,996 soil test kits and 8,023 leaf color charts and Minus-One-Element-Technique (MOET), which will help farmers determine the optimum amounts of fertilizer to be used for specific soil types.

On Irrigation and other infrastructure, the Department generated 9,909 ha of new irrigation areas, rehabilitated and restored 174,506 ha and 101,779 ha unserviceable and deteriorated irrigation facilities, respectively; completed some 1,957 km of farm to market roads; established 13 Mariculture Parks (4 for launching) in addition to the 15 that were established in 2008, and set up 106 units of tramlines (on-going construction).

On Extension, R&D and capacity building, the DA conducted training and training-related activities to farmers/fisherfolk to equip them with farming technologies that will improve their production and productivity. To date, 327,157 farmers and fisherfolk participated in various training activities conducted by DA-Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) through its 75 series of Training of Palaycheck Trainers (TPTs), 2,790 Farmers Field Schools (08-09 dry and 09 wet season), 148 techno demos; 1,091 Regional Trainings; 3,094 Farm and Business Advisory; 206 Field Day/Mass Graduation; school-on-air, e-learning courses and info caravan.

On Loans, a total of P1.7 billion was released to 30,741 farmers/fisherfolk under the various lending facilities of the Agro-Industry Modernization Credit and Financing Program

For January to December 2009, through the LandBank, around P12.4 billion was released to 412,578 farmer-beneficiaries for palay production. The Agricultural Guarantee Fund Pool (AGFP), which was established to encourage financial institutions to lend to farmers by providing guarantee cover of up to 85% of the unsecured loans extended to them, has so far provided P4.88 billion-worth of guarantee lines to farmers.

For the Dryers and other postharvest facilities component, the DA distributed 2,016 units of flat bed dryers in various provinces to minimize post-harvest losses and maintain grain quality for better prices.

The DA also established and started operating 11 Corn Post-harvest Processing & Trading Centers; completed the construction of 8 municipal fish ports located in Lingayen, Pangasinan; Orani,Bataan; Quezon, Palawan; Pilar, Capiz; Dimiao, Bohol; Loboc, Bohol; Sagun, Zamboanga del Sur and Catarman, Camiguin.

As for Seeds and other genetic materials, the DA, provided certified seeds to 2,959,820 hectares and hybrid seeds to 201,579 hectares in 2009 under its GMA Rice Program; and distributed the following (preliminary, as of December 2009):

• 30.4 million pieces of planting materials (e.g. sugarcane, mango, coconut, cashew, citrus, lanzones, durian, cassava, mushroom (spawn), & forage cuttings) to increase production of high value crops;

• 57,842 head of various animals (large & small ruminants, poultry, swine and Dairy) to improve the breeder base and upgrade native stocks; and

• 332 million pieces of fingerlings and brood stock to increase fish production in aquaculture.

Thank you very much. – JOEL S. RUDINAS, Undersecretary, Department of Agriculture