By Manny Piñol
The Department of Agriculture (DA) will launch today the Samar Island Rice Development Program with the start of the 2,000-hectare seed production project in San Roque town in Northern Samar.
A Memorandum of Understanding between the Department of Agriculture (DA), the Local Government of San Roque, Northern Samar, the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) and the stakeholders will be signed today.
The DA Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC) will also start an orientation program for the prospective seed producers of the town.
The ACPC will initially allocate a loan fund of P40-M to fund the seed production program.
The seed production project is expected to supply the rice seeds requirements of about 200,000 hectares of rice fields in Samar and Leyte.
The project, with the guidance of the PhilRice, will grow rice seed varieties which are adaptable to the conditions and climate of Samar and Leyte.
These will be mainly the premium rice varieties like RC 218, RC 300 and RC 160 which command a high buying price in the rice market.
A group of farmers from my home province of North Cotabato will lead the development of the 200-hectare seed production nucleus farm which will serve as a learning centre for the farmers of San Roque.
Led by Seed Grower Nathanael Fabila, the experienced seed growers and farmers will serve as the on-site instructors for the local farmers.
The program is expected to turn San Roque into one of the biggest rice seed production areas of the country.
Blessed with abundant water and fertile soil, San Roque has been identified as an ideal area for the project mainly because of the support of the local officials led by Mayor Abdon Abalon who is running unopposed in the next elections.
The project is expected to turn San Roque’s primitive rice farming system where the traditional “Payatak” is still being used by farmers into a model farming area which will use Solar irrigation, farm machinery, laser-guided field leveller, drones and a computerised geo-tagging and data encoding for farmers participating in the program.
(These photos taken by Lito Degorio of DA AFID in San Roque last year, show the potentials of the area as a seed production site.)
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