In its effort to transform regional agriculture, the Department of Agriculture Cordillera (DA-CAR) will start to focus on the outcomes of programs, particularly in the production of locally produced hybrid rice.
In the Regional Rice Program and Local Government Unit Assessment and Planning Workshop held in Baguio City, DA-CAR Focal person for Rice Edwin Joseph Franco explained, that aside from program outcomes, rice program initiatives particularly in the production of hybrid rice should also focus on markets, innovations, scale, and mainstreaming for the region to be able to transform the agriculture sector in CAR.
“We still need to reach the target for local hybrid production for 2024 wherein those sold by private and public hybrid companies should produce 40% of the total consumption. Based on our assessment of the present status wherein we gathered the seed production of private and public hybrid companies, the production of hybrid seeds is currently at 30%, or 10% lower than what is required under Administrative Order Number 9,” Franco explained.
The administrative order states the need to develop the local or domestic production of hybrid rice seed that will provide job opportunities and contribute to the country’s economy.
Through the said A.O., DA-CAR will implement a policy on local hybrid rice seed production that would provide a venue for local breeding of varieties suitable for the region’s agro-climatic conditions producing hybrid rice seeds in the region.
“The Local Government Units and other partners together with DA-CAR being implementers should review the 2023 rice accomplishments, the output of the program based on last year amounted to around P8.126 million under the GAA only and does not include the fuel assistance the RFFA, is the turnout or outcome commensurate to the budget,” the Rice focal person said.
For 2024, the Rice and LGU assessment and planning workshop centered on the review and understanding of the rice industry in CAR for the region to come up with the appropriate and doable actions considering the current sources available.
“Based on the official data coming from the Philippine Statistics Authority or PSA, the 2019 record high 418.000 metric tons produced, the region currently produces around 331.470 metric tons. The region used to be self-sufficient in rice except for Benguet, Ifugao, and Mountain Province making the region at around 82 percent self-sufficient with the 18 percent coming from regions 1 and 2,” Franco added.
A more directed approach has been recommended by DA-CAR to the program implementors in addressing the rice production situation in the region by adopting a new method of distribution for farm equipment to help reverse the downward trend.
Programs and innovations were introduced to the rice program implementors adopted by DA-CAR following the blueprint of the “Masagana Rice Industry Development Program”, aside from unifying and convergence of the farm clustering and consolidation of associations with the primary identification to be done by the National Irrigation Administration (NIA), the use of F2C2, and the timely use of digital transformation.
The Province of Apayao is set to pilot the planting of hybrid rice with a focus on finishing the list of individuals belonging to clusters to reach the 5,200 hectares hybrid beneficiaries in Apayao for a total of around P65 million for the at season.
The use of the Intervention Monitoring Card targets to be reached for 2024, memorandum orders and project guidelines governing the production assistance, the reintroduction of the scale and scale-up price technology projects, system rice intensification, heirloom rice production, and the use of drones in farm management, and the creation of groundworks through coordination, convergence, and cooperation between project implementors among other issues and concerns were discussed in the assessment and planning workshop. By JTLlanes
