THE Department of Agriculture (DA) is planning to implement seven off-season plantings for palay until 2010 in its bid to ensure it would be able to hit its rice self-sufficiency target in three years.

Agriculture Secretary Arthur C. Yap said he has ordered the increase in “quick turnaround” plantings to increase the cropping period for palay to nine from the current two—the wet and the dry season cropping.

“My demand for our regional executive directors is for them to give me seven extra cropping seasons starting the dry season of 2008 until 2010,” said Yap.

He said he has ordered Ginintuang Masaganang Ani (GMA) Rice Program director Frisco Malabanan to identify key areas where these additional cropping periods can be implemented.

“We have to talk quickly to our seed producers so that they can come up with better or high-yielding varieties of seeds, and we should also advise our organic fertilizer producers to manufacture early,” he noted.

After September 15, Yap said DA officials will start to meet regarding the plan of having nine cropping seasons until 2010.

“That’s why the sustained four-year program should be continuously implemented until we meet our target of 95-percent self-sufficient in rice by 2010,” Yap said.

Yap, likewise, appealed to legislators and to President Arroyo to pass as early as possible the budget because the DA needs the funds for its projects.

Earlier, the DA said it would need a budget support of about P20 billion to enable the Philippines to achieve self-sufficiency in rice production by 2010.

The DA earlier disclosed that a huge chunk of the P20 billion would be used for constructing and rehabilitating irrigation facilities all over the country.

For this year, the DA is seeking to increase palay production by 5.87 percent to 16.23 million metric tons (MMT) from 15.33 MMT in 2006. 

Malabanan said the GMA Rice Program will continue to provide financial assistance to palay farmers at P1,000 per 20 kilograms for hybrid seeds and P440 per 40 kg of certified seeds that will be planted in 600,000 hectares of rainfed-lowland areas.

This year, Malabanan said that the DA is targeting to plant hybrid rice to 400,000 hectares of farm lands. By 2010, the DA is eyeing to expand this to 600,000 hectares.

THE government has disclosed seven priority infrastructure projects for implementation under the build-operate-transfer (BOT) scheme and the public-private partnership (PPP).

THE Department of Agriculture (DA) is planning to implement seven off-season plantings for palay until 2010 in its bid to ensure it would be able to hit its rice self-sufficiency target in three years.

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