Pangasinan still expects 180% rice sufficiency level
STA. BARBARA — Pangasinan is still projected to register 180 percent rice sufficiency level by December this year despite the onslaught of past monsoon rains and typhoons.
Acting Provincial Agriculturist Dalisay Moya said the projection was based on the volume of monitored rice harvests till Nov. 7
Moya said the projection was 207 percent rice sufficiency before monsoon rains came.
She added that based on their computation of rice harvests in October alone and the projected rice harvest from November to December, the projected 180 percent rice sufficiency level can easily be attained.
Moya said the shallow tube wells being distributed to farmers’ associations are a big boon to agriculture because some 40 percent of the rice lands in the province are still rain-fed.
Gov. Amado Espino III said each tube well irrigation project is capable of irrigating 10 to 20 hectares of rainfed rice land.
The shallow tube well irrigation projects are funded in part by the excise tax on burley and native tobacco from 2016 to 2017 and the other part were spent for the purchase of hand-tractors or “kuliglig” sought earlier by tobacco farmers themselves.
Espino said the share of the province from tobacco excise tax this year will be spent for the construction of a multi-purpose building with a dormitory at the premises of the Provincial Nursery that can be used by tobacco farmers for their meetings and live-in seminars.
He assured farmers associations that procurement and distribution of shallow tube wells will continue until all the rain-fed areas not serviced by National Irrigation Administration are given.
There are more than 300 shallow tube wells to be distributed to farmer associations next year.
Meanwhile, the Tugui Farmers Association in Bani and the Urdaneta Organic Farming Association were the latest recipients of equipment, seeds, organic fertilizers and other inputs from the PRDP.
Under the program, World Bank fund 50 percent, DA gives 20 percent, the provincial government allocates more than 20 percent while the farmers’ association, has an equity of three to four percent.
To date, 30 farmers associations and cooperatives already benefited from the PRDP. The total counterpart fund released by the provincial government to date for all of these associations is more or less P50 million. (Leonardo Micua)
Share your Comments or Reactions
Powered by Facebook Comments
