DA to hike palay output

The Department of Agriculture hopes to raise palay production from 11.8 million metric tons last year to 12.5 million tons this year, or by 700,000 metric tons, through increased yield.

Agriculture Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban said any benefits that increased investments in irrigation that government will put in can only be felt early next year.

"Any increase in hectarage planted to palay is already out of the question. Thus, the 700,000-metric ton incremental production will have to come from technological innovations, such as the use of certified seeds," he told The STAR.

As of 1997, only 15 percent of palay farmers use high-quality, certified seeds. In four years, the DA aims to increase the percentage of quality seed users to 80 percent.

Three years after its enactment into law, the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act or AFMA will only be implemented this year.

AFMA sets out a seven-year modernization program with a total budget of P120 billion. The AFMA stipulates that the DA be appropriated P20 billion over and above the regular DA budget for its initial year, and no less than P17 billion annually for the next six years.

Taking 1999 as the base year where the DA was allocated P14.7 billion in the general appropriations act, P34.7 billion should be allocated to the DA for fiscal year 2000. However, due to budgetary constraints, the executive department submitted to Congress a President's budget of only P21.8 billion for the DA or around P13-billion short of AFMA mandated budget, according to Agriculture Secretary Edgardo Angara.

Bulk of the appropriation, or P6.4 billion, will go to irrigation with the rest broken down as follows: post-harvest facilities (P878 million), other infra including farm-to-market roads (P1.2 billion), research and development/extension (P1.2 billion), capability building (P1.2 billion), market development and assistance (P374 million), rural finance (P129 million), national information network (P168 million), SAFDZ and AFMP consolidation (P20.7 million).

The remaining P6.8 billion will be distributed as follows: ACEF (P3 billion), food security program fund (P1.5 billion), production support (P2.2 billion), crop insurance premium (P138 million).

Angara said irrigation will be the first priority of the DA since it raises yields as well as increases cropping intensity. "On the average, irrigated rice outyields rainfed rice by about a ton for every hectare. And where water is available all year-round, some farmers are able to grow even third crops," he said.

Between this year and 2004, the DA hopes to put an additional 600,000 hectares of farmlands under irrigation, thereby increasing total irrigated areas in good condition from 1.1 million to 1.7 million hectares.