DA vows to give ‘lion’s share’
of budget for rice production

BY REINIR PADUA

The Department of Agriculture (DA) yesterday said it will focus its efforts in boosting the production of palay and nine other top commodities by allotting "a lion’s share" of its budget for 2007 to increase production.

This is aimed at hitting the department’s growth target of 4 percent to 5 percent for the farm sector this year and 7 percent to 8 percent next year.

Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said that apart from palay, the other "priority" products include hogs, chicken meat, municipal fisheries, aquaculture, corn, coconut, commercial fisheries, banana and sugarcane, which accounted for a combined 81 percent of agricultural output last year.

"A sizeable portion of the DA budget will be funneled into these top commodities to keep our growth targets on track," Yap said in a statement.

Yap said palay tops the list with its contribution of P162.46 billion to the agriculture sector last year from an output of 15.32 million metric tons; followed by hogs, which was valued at P126.54 billion with volumes reaching 1.84 million MT; and chicken meat at P81.96 billion with 1.20 million MT.

The DA chief said these three commodities alone already accounted for 41.8 percent of the entire value of production in the agriculture sector last year.

Yap said along with municipal fisheries, which contributed P59.02 billion and aquaculture, with P55.73 billion worth of output last year, these five commodities accounted for more than half or 54.72 percent of the production value in the agriculture sector in last year.

Corn, with 54.92 billion; coconut, P49.66 billion; commercial fisheries, P48.66 billion; banana, P47.88 billion; and sugarcane P33.11 billion, round up the list of "Top 10" commodities that accounted for 81.11n percent of country’s agriculture sector in 2006.

Yap said the DA aims to increase palay production from 15.33 million metric tons in 2006 to 16.23 million MT this year by using hybrid and certified seeds, increasing spending on rural infrastructure and seed technology, developing efficient marketing systems, opening more rural credit facilities, and being location-specific in implementing said interventions.

He said the DA also aims to reduce production expenses by reducing post-harvest losses by 1 percent per year and increasing yields by 20 percent from 2006 to 2010.

Last year, 225,371 hectares were planted to hybrid rice during the dry season and over 93,000 hectares during the wet season.

This year, the department aims to plant total of 400,000 hectares planted to hybrid rice, and 600,000 hectares by 2010.

Yap said the DA would also allot P3 billion into irrigation projects servicing 98,000 hectares of croplands to further inflate farm yields.

He said the DA intends to construct 29,866 kilometers of farm-to-market roads from 2007 to 2010.

He said this will require P33.3 billion to be sourced from the regular budgets of the DA and the National Irrigation Administration as well as from foreign aid and local government funds.

Yap said the DA is also investing in cold-chain projects from 2007 to 2010 period, with target budget of P1.1 billion.