Tuesday, May 01, 2007 P20 million incentive given to hybrid farmers
GOVERNMENT is pouring in another windfall support to hybrid rice farmers in Kalinga with its P20.8-million incentive in post-harvest facilities this dry cropping from November 2006 to April 2007.
Agriculture Provincial Rice Specialist Joe Casibang said the 13-unit incentive coming from the GMA-Rice program is composed of farming package in the form of two units multi-purpose drying pavement (420 sq. m. each), one unit flat bed dryer with shed, two units tarpaulin, one unit temporary storage, two units hand tractor with trailer, one unit moisture meter and one unit flatform scale of 1000 kg.
Casibang said as incentive, the facility is awarded to hybrid rice farmers in cluster area production of not less than 100 hectares and that 80 percent of the production area must be devoted to F1 hybrid rice variety.
The area of production must be accessible and has electric power and that farmers are willing to provide space for the facility, Casibang added.
In the province, there are 35 cluster areas organized by the Department of Agriculture (DA) for hybrid rice production.
If farmers in the province could exceed the 13 unit incentive, the DA is willing to add more from those earmarked to other provinces, which can not meet their targets, Casibang said.
Hybrid rice production in the province gets mounting support from the government under GMA-Rice, through subsidies in the cost of hybrid rice seeds, organic fertilizers and other farm interventions.
Kalinga, which has now gained the title as the hybrid rice capital of the country, devotes at least 5,000 hectares to production of hybrid rice.
Hybrid rice seed production already reached export level and is shipped to nearby provinces of Ilocos, Pangasinan, Nueva Ecija and other parts of the country.
Casibang said the incentive is part of many other facilities government is giving in support of the hybrid rice industry of the province. Among those existing are the newly constructed cool storage, multi-purpose drying pavements and the newly completed seed laboratory project.
