Government increases rice procurement fund to P4 B

President Arroyo announced yesterday that the government is increasing its rice procurement fund from P1 billion to P4 billion to match the expected bumper harvest of palay this year.

The bumper crop is due to the introduction of the Gloria hybrid rice variety from China, a Malacañang statement said yesterday.

In a speech at the Rice Industry Summit held at the Philippine International Convention Center, the President said the dramatic increase in the rice procurement fund of the National Food Authority (NFA) is part of the record P60 billion spent by her administration for agriculture modernization.

Mrs. Arroyo also said the government will launch next month a program offering cheap fertilizer and farm machinery from China to complement the success of the Gloria rice.

The government’s agriculture modernization efforts also involve stepping up the completion of rice irrigation projects to ensure the success of the Gloria rice propagation program.

The President said that as a result of the propagation of Gloria rice, farmers doubled or tripled their harvest. She cited the case of Ernesto Pineda from Rizal, Occidental Mindoro, who was adjudged the most outstanding Gloria rice farmer for harvesting 292 cavans per hectare.

Mrs. Arroyo, assisted by NFA Administrator Arthur Yap and Development Bank of the Philippines Chairman Vitaliano Nañagas, turned over an P8.7 million check to Jose Lim of Orion, Bataan under the DBP’s loan program to modernize rice mills.

The turnover set the stage for the nationwide implementation of the rice mill modernization program through the DBP, she said.

Yap, on the other hand, said P200 million has been earmarked for the NFA’s fertilizer procurement program, which was launched after the President directed the NFA and the Department of Agriculture (DA) to intervene in the procurement and distribution of fertilizer for farmers involved in the Ginintuang Masaganang Ani rice program.

"It aims to increase local palay production and ease the farmers’ burden on the increasing expenses for farm inputs," he said.