DA to focus on development of six commodities in next 18 months

The Department of Agriculture will channel its limited resources to the development of six commodities during the remaining 18 months of the Arroyo administration to meet the government goal of boosting farmers’ income, creating jobs, and achieving affordable basic food items for Filipinos especially in urban areas.

This was bared by Agriculture Secretary Luis Lorenzo Jr. during a recent weekend breakfast forum at a Manila restaurant co-hosted by the Philippine Agricultural Journalists Inc.

"We don’t have to re-invent the wheel to create impact on the lives of ordinary people. Given our limited time and resources, all we need to do is give priority to the six ‘focus areas’ as these items are of utmost concern to the majority of Filipinos," he said.

He identified the six as rice, corn, coconut, coffee, sugar and fisheries, which include tilapia, bangus, seaweeds, and sea cucumber.

Lorenzo said he has alrea-dy instructed DA regional field unit directors to focus their attention on the deve-lopment of at least three of the six commodities in their respective areas in the next 18 months, one of which should address a commodity of local concern.

"This means that abaca, which is a peculiar interest to Bicol, should be included in the list for Region 5 in the same way that semi-tempe-rate vegetables should be added to the priority list for Cordillera," Lorenzo said.

Abaca, known overseas as Manila hemp, had been a traditional export winner for Bicolanos until it was struck by the bunchy top, a deadly plant disease. Efforts will be made to control the disease and bring the crop back to its former glory, he said.

Lorenzo said while in-creasing production of the six focus commodities was necessary, DA would put emphasis on the develop-ment of ‘agri-enterprises’ from which farmers and their household members can generate income, im-prove their cash flow and become self-employed entre-preneurs.

In the case of corn, efforts will be made to create a Mindanao-Visayas-Luzon grains highway whereby the delivery system to bring the commodity from the South will be improved such that its landed cost in Manila from Mindanao will be comparable to that from Thailand, United States and other foreign sources.

If attained, Luzon-based feed millers and livestock producers will be encou-raged to buy their corn-based feed requirements from the South, thereby assuring Mindanao corn farmers a ready market for their crops, the DA chief said.

For fisheries, Lorenzo said the thrust for the next one-year and a half would be on the development of inland fish-farming, particularly bangus (milkfish) and tila-pia, especially, on two newly developed strains.

One is the GIFT Exceed tilapia which can grow 10 percent faster and 30 percent bigger than conventional species, and the other is the saline tilapia which can thrive even in brackish (partly salty) water.

Seaweeds and sea cucum-ber also make up the list of fish commodities for priority development because the former continues to com-mand big overseas demand due to its wide industrial application while the latter is increasingly being sought in Asian countries, notably China, Lorenzo added.

The Arroyo administra-tion, to which Lorenzo is a relative newcomer having been appointed as DA chief less than two months ago, will turn over power in June 2004 after the President declared she is not running for the country’s top post next year. – PAJ News and Features