Speaking to reporters here at the break of the First National Coco Coir Summit at the Marco Polo Hotel, Alcala said he has not received any warning or threat of contamination of the rice crops in Vietnam, where the Philippines relies heavily during the crisis year of 2008.
Vietnam and Thailand are the Philippines’ main rice-supply sources.
The assurance came as the latest advisory from the Philippine Nuclear Research Institute (PNRI), citing its link with international nuclear agencies, said that the “air parcel coming from northern Japan is forecasted to move east toward the Pacific Ocean for the next three days.” The PNRI advisory was based on the wind-direction model of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa).
The PNRI, an agency of the Department of Science and Technology, said it “does not expect that harmful levels of radioactivity will reach the Philippine waters.”
It added that radioactive element plutonium (Pu) was “reportedly found in soil samples at the Fukushima plant site” in northern Japan.
“However, according to the Japanese government agency Mext, the concentration of the detected Pu is still in the background range of Pu activity found in Japan before the accident,” the PNRI said.
Concentrations reported for both Pu-238 and Pu-239/240 were similar to those deposited in Japan as a result of the testing of nuclear weapons.
“The ratio of the concentrations of Pu-238 and Pu-239/240 in two of the samples indicates that very small amounts of Pu might have been released during the Fukushima accident, but this requires to be further clarified,” PNRI added.
A sample and precautionary radiation check at the PNRI grounds showed normal concentration.
Meanwhile, Alcala said the rice self-sufficiency program was being felt already.
“We would be expected to be self-sufficient by 2013,” he said.
Last year the DA imported 2.4 million metric tons (MMT). The target for this year is 860,000 MMT.
“We would be importing only one-third of the rice requirement,” he said. Most of the rice supply were being sourced locally and added that the buying price of palay was satisfactory for farmers.
