TABUK CITY, Kalinga – This province and city cemented their status as top rice-producing LGUs when they copped the 2017 Rice Achievers Awards in their respective categories.
Kalinga was in the ranks of the outstanding provinces a long with Bulacan, Cagayan, Isabela, Nueva Ecija, Zamboanga del Sur and Zamboanga Sibugay while Tabuk City was in the category of outstanding cities and towns along with Bago City, Negros Occidental and Malaybalay City, Bukidnon and Manaoag in Pangasinan, San Mateo in Isabela, Paniqui in Tarlac, Magdalena in Laguna, Sofronio Espanola in Palawan, San Jose in Camarines Sur, San Miguel in Bohol, Alangalang in Leyte, Molave in Zamboanga del Sur, Hagonoy in Davao del Sur, Tulunan in Cotabato and Kitcharao, Agusan del Norte.
The Rice Achievers Award, an annual event under the National Rice Program of Department of Agriculture (DA) started in 2011, recognizes the significant contributions of LGUs, agricultural extension workers (AEW) and organized groups of farmers and irrigators’ associations to the local rice industry and in the process capture the impact of DA’s rice production interventions towards achieving self-sufficiency.
For their feat, the provinces received cash awards of P4M while the outstanding cities and towns got P1M apiece.
This being its fourth time to receive the award, Tabuk City was declared a Hall of Famer during the awarding ceremonies. On the other hand, Kalinga has already won the award thrice.
City Agriculturist Julibert Aquino, Senior Agriculturist Marcelina Saquing and Agricultural Technologist Felomina Nalog also copped the Outstanding AEW trophy for the fourth time.
From the rest of the province, Provincial Agriculturist Domingo Bakilan, Provincial Rice Coordinator Jose Casibang, Provincial Rice Report Officer Sol Lawagan, Senior Agriculturist Rosalina Gapasen and Agriculturist II Myrna Garaw, Balbalan Municipal Agriculturist Anita Caldingon and Agricultural Technologists Arnel Malaggay and Salvador Balicao were also adjudged as outstanding AEWs.
Each of the outstanding AEWs received a prize of P25,000.00.
With 36 percent of its total agricultural land area dedicated to rice farming, the city has increased its production from 129,218.85 metric tons (mt) in 2012 to an average of 175,588.92 mt in the succeeding years.
The increase, according to Aquino, was manifested in 2017 when 7.5 mt per hectare was produced during the wet cropping while 8.0 mt per hectare was harvested in the dry cropping for an average 7.75 mt per hectare.
During the awarding ceremony at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City on May 31, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol revealed that the country has produced in 2017 4.01 mt of rice per hectare which he described as unprecedented.
The secretary also told the government’s response to poor rice production includes subsidy on rice seeds, machinery and fertilizers apart from interest-free loans.
Piñol cited that problems persist in the implementation of subsidy programs such as corruption, unequal distribution and political interference in distribution. He said that this problems are minimized through the loan programs of the DA.
In her remarks, Senate Committee on Agriculture and Food Chairman Cynthia Villar said that the solution is to bring down cost of rice production per kilo to make it competitive with other countries like Vietnam, which has the cheapest price in all of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) region at P6.00 per kilo.
Villar said that the Philippines cannot beat Vietnam in rice yield because the latter has more money and is more advanced in terms of farming techniques.
“The challenge is to reduce the production cost from P12.00 per kilo to P8.00 or P9.00,” the senator said.
She also urged the DA to improve its rice programs in terms of mechanization and farm technology.
The senator expressed the wish that all Filipino farmers be competitive, financially literate and be good at business while engaging in farming activities.**By Darwin S. Serion/Tabuk City Information Office
