Tuesday, October 09, 2007 DA targets to increase rice yield in 3 years
THE Department of Agriculture (DA) will increase the country’s rice and corn supply to a 100 percent in 2010 to prevent a shortage, an official said.
This could be achieved by increasing the normal planting season to seven over the next three years to attain the rice-self sufficiency level, DA 7 Director Eduardo Lecciones told Sun.Star Cebu in a phone interview.
The country has normally two cropping seasons—the dry season from May to October, and the wet season from November to April.
With Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap’s plan to insert one cropping season each in 2008 and 2009 on top of the traditional dry and wet seasons, DA 7 already implemented the “pang-agpas” crop, which started last September.
Harvest
With the crop, farmers could harvest earlier than September during the May to October harvest season, Lecciones said.
He said this will encourage “hardworking and industrious farmers” to start planting immediately after the harvest or before Sept. 15, which is the “deadline for the “pang-agpas crop.”
In Luzon, they have the “pang-amihan crop” which is planted between October and November.
In the Visayas region, the pang-agpas crop is the product of the third planting season inserted in between the traditional planting season.
Turnaround
It is an “act of a quick turnaround,” Lecciones said, adding that the DA will be giving all-out support to farmers on this program, which includes providing them with 50 percent zinc supply.
However, not all areas could qualify as plantations for the additional crop because only those with properly irrigated rice fields and corn fields can be utilized.
Lecciones said that they aim to plant rice and corn on 2,500 hectares of land, including in some areas in Bohol and Oriental Neg-ros.
Lecciones said this could encourage the farmers, who have the required irrigation system, to increase their rice yield to 20 percent in preparation for the drought.
Ready
Farmers will be ready for the rainy season in December, as projected by the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Service Administration, he added.
Cebu is not yet ready for the pang-agpas crops since it does not have a proper irrigation system, Lecciones said. (TEP)
