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THE
increase in the Department of Agriculture’s (DA)rice
self-sufficiency master plan received an injection of
additional outlays to raise the support to P55 billion,
the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda)
reported Thursday.
Neda
Acting Director General Augusto Santos said the increase
was initially pegged at P43.7 billion, but the
presidential economic management team, recognizing the
need of the times, had approved the additional allotment
for the building of more irrigation facilities.
Santos
said the allotment for irrigation now accounts for 60
percent of the total amount. The rice self-sufficiency
master plan will be implemented from this year to 2010.
Santos
said the plan—which will be included in the national
budget—will be submitted to the Neda Board for final
approval. The Neda Board is the highest policymaking
body of the agency and is chaired by the President.
The
master plan is also known as the FIELDS plan, which
stands for fertilizer; irrigation and infrastructure;
education and training of farmers and fisherfolk; loans;
dryers and other postharvest facilities; and seeds of
the high-yielding, hybrid varieties.
The
program was presented at the recent National Food Summit
and aims to sustain agricultural growth and guarantee
the nation’s food security in the face of the global
food crunch.
FIELDS
was developed with local government executives, farmers,
agribusiness leaders and other private stakeholders to
harmonize food- security initiatives across all sectors,
not only to ensure food security but help put together
an organized rural- development program to be
implemented in the next three years.
Under
the FIELDS scheme, the government aims to provide
fertilizer support, particularly organic fertilizers
from the Agricultural Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (Acef);
rehabilitate all irrigation systems by 2010, build
farm-to-market roads and other rural infrastructure like
roll-on roll-off (Roro) ferry terminals, train farmers
on new technologies, and research and development on
increasing yields and lowering production costs.
The
program also aims to extend credit to farmers,
fisherfolk and other small rural borrowers; provide
dryers and other postharvest support like storage
facilities, and increase hybrid and certified seed
production and subsidies until 2010. |
