For higher production SAMAR TOWN TO PRODUCE RICE SEEDS FOR 200,000 HAS.

By Manny Piñol

The poor town of San Roque, Northern Samar will be transformed this year into the biggest seed production center in the country with about 2,000-hectares planted to selected high-yielding varieties developed by PhilRice.

The Seed Production Area in San Roque, which will be a joint project of the Department of Agriculture, PhilRice, the Local Government Unit of San Roque, a private company, and the farmers, will be the foundation of the Samar Rice Development Program (SRDP).

The SRDP which will be launched this year targets about 100,000 to 200,000 hectares of rich lands into rice production areas.

The agreement to turn San Roque into the seed production center of Samar was forged during my short visit to the town on Saturday, Jan. 5.

San Roque Mayor Don Abalon, who is running for his third term unopposed in the coming elections, said the program could turn his town into one of the most progressive localities in Northern Samar, which is among the 10 poorest provinces in the country along with Eastern and Western Samar.

Under the program, a private seed production group will set up a nucleus farm of 200-hectares, establish rice seeds processing facilities and a refrigerated warehouse for the storage of the seeds.

The private seed production group will engage the farmers of San Roque in a seed production contract where the seeds from the farmers will be bought by the company.

The DA and PhilRice will support the program by providing the farmers with technical training, equipment and loan support.

Farm to market roads and Solar-Powered Irrigation Systems will also be installed in the seed production areas of the farmers.

The DA will purchase the seeds produced in San Roque to be distributed to the rice farmers in the rest of Samar Island, including parts of Leyte.

The San Roque LGU will be tasked to consolidate the areas to be developed into seed production areas.

Mayor Abalon estimates that the program will bring in a financial windfall of about P600-M for the farmers of San Roque.

The SRDP targets to increase the average rice yield in Samar Island from the current 2-metric tons per hectare to 6-metric tons by 2020.

(Photos of the rice fields and farmers of San Roque were taken by Mayette Tudlas.)