San Fernando City, La Union (31 July) — As part of government efforts to raise rice production and attain food sufficiency in the country, the government thru the Department of Agriculture (DA) has strengthened its “Ginintuang Masagana Ani” (GMA) and Fertilizer Subsidy Programs with the distribution of seeds and coupons to farmer-beneficiaries.
In the distribution of certified and hybrid seeds, DA said, so far they have distributed 1,042,390 bags of seeds, 3.8M discount coupons worth P947-M to farmers tilling 1.9 M hectares this wet crop.
In Region I, the biggest palay-growing area has planted hybrid seeds with 18,000 hectares of land and has received 606,218 fertilizer coupons worth P151.554-million as fertilizer subsidy covering the provinces of Ilocos Sur, Ilocos Norte, Pangasinan and La Union.
On the other hand, DA is targeting Central Luzon as the biggest area planted for certified seeds for an area of 330.540 hectares and was given 705,984 fertilizer coupons worth P176.496M.
In a recent meeting of DA Secretary Arthur Yap with governors and representatives, they were informed that in the distribution of fertilizer subsidy to qualified farmer-beneficiaries, LGUs have counterpart funds to provide additional discount coupons to farmers in their respective localities and that they were instructed to draw from their Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) differentials amounting to P12.5billion.
Each farmer beneficiary shall receive an amount of P250.00 each fertilizer coupon at a ratio of 2 coupons per hectare for every beneficiary.
The seed distribution is a key component of PGMA’s FIELDS program, an acronym which means Fertilizer, Irrigation and other rural infrastructure, research, loans, dryers, post harvest facilities and Seeds which aims to make the country 98% sufficient in the grain in a 2-year period.
In her 2001 SONA, PGMA vowed to increase the country’s rice sufficiency level and with bigger farm spending, palay production has improved by an annual average of 4.07% over the 2001-2007 period.
DA is confident that it can achieve its palay target of 17.32 million MT despite the ravaged done by typhoon “Frank” to agriculture sector considering that the dry season alone, rice production has already exceeded the goal of 7.1 milion MT by 200,000 tons. By Jessie R. Valdez (PIA La Union)
