DAVAO DEL NORTE - Rice and corn areas in Davao del Norte have expanded as most small banana growers have switched to grain production.
In the Pakigsayod Radio Program, guests from the Davao del Norte Provincial Agriculture Office (Pagro) attributed the massive conversion into rice or corn to the vast devastation caused by fusarium wilt infestation that has affected most small-scale banana plantations.
Farmers are now tilling them into rice and corn areas with the assistance provided by the Provincial Government as part of the “Kawsa sa Agrikultura ug Panginabuhian sa Barangay” or Kaagapay Program.
The PLGU has purchased two units of backhoe to reconstruct banana farms into rice paddies and corn fields while providing them hybrid seeds and fertilizer to restore the productivity of idle and abandoned lands.
From merely 7,000 hectares years back, corn production areas in Davao del Norte have grown to more than 10,000 hectares, Pagro Senior Agriculturist and Provincial Corn Focal Omar T. Ayco said while noting the significant expansion of 3,000 hectares.
With the Yellow Corn Enhancement Program, farmers are given hybrid yellow corn seeds and fertilizers while the same assistance is also being provided to white corn farmers, especially now that white corn consumption has increased as an alternative to rice consumption.
Ayco encouraged farmers to maximize the income opportunities of corn production as market buying prices are relatively high at P16.80 to P18.50 per kilo for yellow corn and P20.00 to P24.00 per kilo for white corn.
Meanwhile, during the same radio program, Pagro Senior Agriculturist Jefferson O. Cerbito revealed the same increasing trend of rice production areas in Davao del Norte due to the conversion of fusarium-affected banana plantations.
Cerbito said the existing 19,000 hectares of combined irrigated and rain-fed rice lands are expected to increase.
“Sauna pa, rice areas ni sila tapos converted to bananas karon nibalik sila sa basakan due to fusarium wilt (These used to be Riceland, they converted to bananas, and then they go back to rice farming due to fusarium wilt),” he said.
Cerbito was noted as instrumental in converting fusarium wilt-infested banana farms into rice fields, the two backhoes that Provincial Governor Edwin I. Jubahib had thought of deploying to help banana growers recover.
Of the 19,000 rice areas, 15,000 hectares are irrigated, and 4,000 are upland rain-fed rice areas, mostly in indigenous people (IP) communities), he said.
While the provincial government, through Pagro, develops and propagates upland rice seeds for distribution to IP community farmers, Pagro assists the Department of Agriculture in distributing hybrid and in-bred rice seeds and fertilizer. PIA DAVAO