SCIENCE CITY OF MUNOZ – Agriculture Sec. Proceso Alcala has repeatedly asked for forgiveness from thousands of farmers participating in the Philippine Rice Research Institute’s Lakbay Palay for the failure of his agency to meet the rice sufficiency target recently.
“Mabuti na po yung inaamin,” Alcala said, explaining that the DA is fi ne tuning its program hoping the target will be met before the term of President Aquino ends. “We will continue to pursue with the rice sufficiency program dahil imagine from 82 percent to 96 percent hindi naman po biro ‘yun, napakalaking jump,” he said.
He said the country’s palay harvest increased by 2.8 million metric tons from 2010 to 2013. Alcala issued the apology at least thrice that day – during his address before farmers at the PhilRice gym, at the press conference at the Phil-Rice’ social hall and during an interview at the ricefi eld in Talavera festival.
He said calamities that struck the country last year were among the reasons in failing to meet the target. But the DA, he said, has diverted its program from mere rice to staple food which means that production in other crops such as corn and sweet potato shall be deducted from rice target.
“We are going back to the food staple, not only rice. Kasi po if we just concentrate on rice para tayong lumikha ng batong ipu-pukpok sa ulo, kaso po meron tayong maraming kababayan na gumagamit ng ibang staples,” he explained.
Alcala who also attended the harvest festival organized by the National Irrigation Administration-Upper Pampanga River Integrated Irrigation System (NIA-UPRIIS) in Talavera town Wednesday said the agency is also looking at cutting down cost of production to make local farmers competitive and stop smuggling of grains.
