Aumentado wants subsidy for hybrid rice, corn planters

TAGBILARAN CITY, Philippines — Rep. Erico Aumentado (2nd District) filed last week a bill providing subsidies for hybrid rice and corn planters all over the country.

The congressman said he thought of replicating to the entire country the pilot projects in his district, as a way of attaining rice and corn self-sufficiency for the Philippines in support of the Aquino administration’s food security program and transform the country into an exporter of the commodities.

The subsidy Aumentado proposed will consist of hybrid rice and corn seeds, fertilizer, insecticides and post harvest facilities.

“This way, the Filipino rice and corn farmers can compete globally. The strategy is a paradigm shift from the present trend of importing rice and corn from producers abroad thereby indirectly subsidizing foreign farmers instead of the Filipinos engaged in the same rice and corn production,” he said.

In the bill’s explanatory note, Aumentado said that subsidizing and strengthening the Filipino farmers can rapidly increase the economic multiplier effects of the program, making the agriculture sector a major player in increasing the gross domestic product of the country.

 —(FREEMAN)