The local government has pledged to expand rice-plantation areas in the province by 100,000 hectares to boost the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) bid to achieve rice self-sufficiency by 2021.
Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol said Palawan Gov. Jose Alvarez made this pronouncement to him when he visited the province recently.
Piñol added that the new rice-plantation areas are on top of the island-province’s 59,000 hectares of rice farms that have enabled Palawan to achieve 110-percent rice self-sufficiency.
“As traditional rice-farming areas are now affected by climate change, the availability of new rice-farming areas in Palawan offers a relief to the problem besetting the country’s rice production,” he said in a statement.
Piñol noted that the province of Palawan lies outside of the typhoon path in the Western part of the country and could be developed into a major food-production area.
He said the DA would provide solar-powered irrigation in the new rice plantations, which could increase Palawan’s output by 800,000 metric tons (MT).
While Palawan needs more irrigation facilities, Alvarez told Piñol during their meeting that these should not destroy the natural beauty of the province, which is a popular tourism destination.
Instead of building water-impounding dams, the DA would introduce to Palawan the solar-powered irrigation systems (SPIS), which
will draw water from the rivers.
Piñol said he has instructed the DA’s regional director in Palawan to program the construction of the SPIS without having to build dams.
He noted that the governor also sought the assistance of the DA to help address Palawan’s highly acidic soil that has kept its rice production relatively low.
“I called up Philippine Rice Research Institute [PhilRice] Executive Director Sailila Abdulla to form a team, along with the Bureau of Soils and Water Management, to conduct an extensive soil analysis in Palawan,” he said.
Piñol said he has also ordered the procurement of more tractors, power tillers, harvesters, dryers and rice-processing facilities for Palawan after noticing on his way to Brooke’s Point for the Biyaheng Bukid that farmers and fishermen “lack modern farm equipment”.
“A check of a rice farm I passed by along the way showed that the farmers are still using poor-quality seeds,” he said.
Piñol added that he would encourage farmers to use hybrid seeds by providing them fertilizers as incentives.