Road To Food Sufficiency! Economic Managers, Planners Must Explore The Countryside!

One of our greatest tragedies as an agricultural country is the fact that most, if not all, of our Economic Managers and Planners have not ventured out of their air-conditioned offices to discover our potentials to become a major food producer.
In fact, they laughed at and ridiculed my program for Rice Self-Sufficiency even telling President Duterte na “hangin lang daw ang kwento ko” dahil walang sapat na area ang Pilipinas for rice production.
Hindi nila naintindihan na only one-half of the 4.72-million hectares of rice harvested area in the country is irrigated resulting in a very low average yield per hectare of 3.95-metric tons per year.
Ang solusyon? Irrigation, High Yielding Seeds, Fertilization and Good Price.
I introduced the Solar-Powered Irrigation System and was successful in convincing Israel to provide the country a P40-B loan to irrigate 500,000 hectares.
This was three years ago, pero hanggang ngayon natutulog pa sa burokrasiya ang loan offer ng Israel at hindi pa inaaksyonan.
It is very critical that Economic Managers and Planners have a good grasp of the realities on the ground kasi sila ang nagdedesisyon kung magkano ang ibibigay na budget sa specific programs of government.
But since mukhang wala silang interes na lumabas sa kanilang lungga para makita kung ano ang puedeng gawin para tumaas ang produksyon ng mga magsasaka at mangingisda, baliktarin na lang natin.
Tayo na lang ang aakyat mula sa kabukiran at karagatan patungong Senado para makagawa tayo ng batas at mga polisiya na magbibigay ng nararapat na suporta for Philippine Agriculture and Fisheries.
Kapag meron tayong boses sa Senado, sigurado maiintindihan na nila that the Philippines could attain Food Self-Sufficiency and even become a major food producer in this part of the world.
#BiyahengSenado2022!
#FarmBoyToTheSenate!