Sunday, December 21, 2008 Agri office to focus on infra
KORONADAL CITY -- The Department of Agriculture (DA) will phase out extending seeds and fertilizers to farmers by 2010, shifting the focus instead to infrastructure development, particularly rehabilitation and construction of irrigation systems across the country.
Agriculture Secretary Arthur C. Yap said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has ordered the agency to concentrate on infrastructure needed for the development of the agriculture sector.
"Our thrust now is to repair or construct irrigation canals...because water is basic in agriculture," Yap recently told the media in Central Mindanao.
Aside from irrigation, Yap said they will focus on constructing farm-to-market roads and solar dyers to cushion the impact of the global crisis.
"In doing this, we can create employment opportunities that would allow us to weather the crisis," he explained.
Yap said infrastructures are sustainable projects because they can be used repeatedly by farmers, unlike fertilizers and seeds that can only be used once.
A brand new irrigation canal that can service a farm hectare costs anywhere from P200,000 to P300,000, he said.
On the other hand, repair works for damaged irrigation canals that service one farm hectare will fetch about P60,000, he added.
Yap said that some canal irrigation systems in the country "have been lying idle for 20 years due to damage and we hope to restore them because it's cheaper to repair them than construct new ones."
However, he did not say how much DA will spend for the infrastructure investments until the end of the Arroyo administration in 2010.
The DA's new tack came as Congress is investigating the P728-million fertilizer fund scam allegedly masterminded by former Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn Bolante.
The fertilizer fund was purportedly dispensed to boost Mrs. Arroyo's chances in the 2004 presidential elections.
Bolante, a close friend of the President's husband Miguel Arroyo, has been in Senate custody since being repatriated from the United States.
Yap assured Congress that the DA would assist in their.
Since 2006, he noted the DA has not purchased fertilizers for distribution to the farmers. (BSS)
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