GOV. Amado Espino Jr. took up the cudgels for the province’s farmers and appealed to Secretary Proceso Alcala to expedite the completion of Phase III of the San Roque Dam project that will service Pangasinan’s irrigation canals.

Alcala, who was in Pangasinan for the DA Makina Saka Agri-Machinery Road Show last week, readily assured him that he will coordinate with the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) for the approval of the necessary funding.

Espino stressed that the irrigation component, Phase III of the San Roque Multi-Purpose Dam project, will benefit not just 11 towns in Pangasinan but also three adjacent towns in Nueva Ecija and one in Tarlac.

It involves the construction of primary canals that will convey water from the re-regulation pond to irrigation canals and eventually to the farmlands and will provide year-round water to some 70,800 hectares of land, mostly in Pangasinan, and could propel the province as the number one rice producer beating Nueva Ecija and Isabela.

Alcala said he’ll do everything he can to get the national government to allocate funds for the project.

SEED SUBSIDY

Meanwhile, Alcala explained that the decision to abolish the hybrid and certified seed-subsidy program was based on findings of corruption and fraud in the system.

Under the seeds subsidy program, 50% of the cost was paid by the government while the other half was paid by the farmers.

However, many cases were discovered wherein seed sacks were invalidly marked “certified”.

“It’s fake, it’s not right,” said Alcala.

Agriculture Undersecretary Dante Delima added that while one-half of the entire budget for the subsidy was given to the program, only 3% per cent of the country’s farmers actually benefitted.

“We cannot police everything so we chose to remove the seed and fertilizer subsidy programs,” said Delima.

In lieu of the abolished program, DA established the community seed banking which provides all farmers access to regular seeds and the supposed fund for seed and fertilizer subsidy was instead used to improve irrigation systems.

By next year, the DA will choose strategic production zones in the Philippines for hybridization. 
.–Johanne R. Macob with report from Eva Visperas

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