URDANETA—Although a leading rice producer in the province, this city is not taking the looming rice crisis lightly with the traditional lean months ahead. 

Mayor Amadeo Perez Jr. met with farmer leaders last week to personally urge them to save part of their produce for the lean months even as he urged all households to begin planting vegetables in their vacant lots.

In that meeting, Perez gave the go-signal for farmers in well-irrigated areas to plant third crop rice to boost the available stock.

He said a third harvest cropping can help stabilize the price of rice as he pointed out that one of the problems lies in the practice of farmers quickly selling all their produce each harvest.

Perez said that buyers from as far as Nueva Ecija come to Urdaneta to buy palay offering P19.50 per kilo, compared with prevailing rates of P18.50 to P19, just to entice farmers to sell all their produce.

He advised farmers “to be wiser and smarter as the food crisis has just started,” he said, pointing to the unabated spiraling prices of commercial rice.

The city government will soon buy hybrid vegetable seeds to boost the seeds produced by the city nursery for distribution to all households.

“If we want to survive the impending food crisis, we must produce our own food right in our homes and backyards,” he said.

At the same time, Perez said he has proposed to the National Food Authority (NFA) to sell the cheaper NFA rice directly to indigent families in six selected barangays of the city.

He said under this arrangement, each indigent family identified by the barangay chair can buy at least three kilos of rice at P18.50 per kilo.—LM

SUBSIDY TO RICE FARMERS

MANAOAG — Government’s P440 subsidy for certified seeds for rice farmers will be increased to P760 per hectare in the coming wet season to boost rice production in the province.

Lawyer Cipriano Santiago, regional executive director of the Department of Agriculture (DA) regional field office, said Secretary Arthur Yap last week issued the directive to raise the subsidy to enhance rice produce.

He added that 12,000 hectares are being targeted for hybrid rice production with a minimum P1,500. per hectare government subsidy.

A total of 180,000 hectares are being targeted for rice planting in Pangasinan in the next season.

The regional office is now coordinating with local government units and seed producers for the necessary seed supply.

The DA has also allocated fund support for local seed producers in line with the national goal of having 900,000 hectares of land planted to rice by 2010.

Yap, who visited the province last week, also encouraged town mayors to file requests for their needed farm implements to improve the quality of production and minimize post harvest losses.

Meanwhile, Engr. Reynaldo Mencias, project manager of the Agno River Integrated Irrigation Project, said irrigated areas will be increased to about 12,000 hectares from the current 5,200 hectares using a P346 million irrigation fund released by Yap this year.

This will cover the municipalities of Binalonan, San Manuel, Asingan, Manaoag, Sta. Barbara, Laoac, Villasis, Mapandan, Calasiao, and Malasiqui.

Yap said the provision of organic fertilizers will be prioritized to minimize the high cost of production inputs. #

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