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Tuesday, December 03, 2002
DA 7 ‘happy’ on choice of Lorenzo as agri chief
By Cherry T. Lim
THE Department of Agriculture (DA) 7 is “very happy” about the appointment of former presidential adviser for job creation Luis “Cito” Lorenzo Jr. as the new agriculture secretary.
We are very happy that we have a new secretary,” DA 7 Regional Director Eduardo Lecciones Jr. told Sun.Star yesterday.
Before he became secretary, he (Lorenzo) was on top of a program on the planting of hybrid rice,” which has succeeded in significantly increasing the yields of farmers, Lecciones said.
Over the weekend, President Arroyo announced that she was replacing DA Secretary Leonardo Montemayor with Lorenzo, and Department of Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Heherson Alvarez with Elisea Gozun.
Lorenzo is the chairman and chief executive officer of Lapanday Agriculture and Development Corp., and he has been chairman of Del Monte Philippines Inc. since 1997, according to a news report.
Lecciones said 800 hectares in Central Visayas, mostly in Bohol and Negros Oriental, had been planted to the hybrid rice.
Central Visayas also groups Cebu and Siquijor.
Yield
(With the hybrid rice) we have a very dramatic yield, an average of 5.9 metric tons per hectare,” he said.
According to Lecciones, this compares with ordinary rice, where farmers would already be very lucky to get a yield of four tons per hectare.
He was very optimistic about the prospects of the new rice, saying that in Negros Oriental, yields had even gone up to as high as 6.9 tons per hectare.
He described the hybrid rice, which is supplied by Philrice, the government rice research institute, as “more nutritious and very delicious.
Cebuanos may soon get a taste of it as he said Bohol farmers were already starting to harvest 43 of the 503 hectares planted to it in that province.
He said Negros Oriental had tarted planting the rice later than Bohol.
The only problem now is in the supply of seeds, which is why Philrice is encouraging private companies to also produce the new seeds.
Philrice, located in Nueva Ecija, is the Filipino counterpart of the Los Bańos-based International Rice Research Institute, Lecciones said.
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