Bohol to ask DA to amend

NRP memo on hybrid seeds

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, May 12, (PIA) –Scampering to prepare for a possible food choke brought about by an impending El Niño phenomenon that would potentially scorch farm lands, Governor Erico Aristotle Aumentado and the Provincial El Niño Task Force is appealing to the Department of Agriculture to amend if not to exempt Bohol from a DA Memorandum Order No 31 (MO 31, s. 2023).

The said memorandum order, which DA Undersecretary for Rice Industry Development Leocadio Sebastian signed April 24, 2023, is the new Implementing Guidelines for the provision of Hybrid Rice Seeds under the National Rice Program to improve the country’s rice production capacity and enhance the rice value chain to help farmers gain good income and food security.

The memorandum gave hybrid seed support to farmers in irrigation associations and farmers’ cooperative associations, in rice producing areas for the dry and wet planting seasons in 2023.

The seed allocation however states that to maximize the hybrid rice planted areas, only farmers cultivating at least 1,000 square meters or more as declared in the Registry of System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture (RSBSA) and are encoded in the Farmers and Fisher-folk Registry System (FFRS) are eligible to get the hybrid seeds.

This becomes a problem for Bohol as majority of rice farmers have smaller rice farms, and thus denies most of the farmers the opportunity to help in the province food security program especially with long dry season in the offing, explained DA former rice industry production support coordinator Cecille Opada, during the meeting.

The new policy is apparently patterned after the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Funds Program and PhilRICE guidelines, Opada added.

The state weather bureau, through its head Leonardo Samar, confirmed that with the El Niño Alert up, people can expect a long dry season from June next month to the first quarter of next year, or in the next ten months.

And as if that is not enough, the same memo, which aims to increase farmers’ adoption of hybrid rice seeds by 40% and obtain an average hybrid rice yield to up to 6 tons to 8 tons in wet and dry seasons by 2028, bared that only farmers who are listed in the RSBSA and whose names are encoded in the FFRS as of December 31, 2022 are eligible to get free hybrid seeds from the project.

While the DA is continuing its RSBSA registration, encoding the names in the FFRS does not happen at the same time.

There is about 20,000 data gap between the RSBSA registry and the FFRS, admits Opada who added that this would further alienate more farmers who could potentially help Bohol in heaping up its food security during clutch time with the El Niño threatening.

Gov Aumentado, who presided over the Task Force Meeting Friday, expressed his alarm and immediately told that Bohol would send a letter to the DA seeking to amend the memorandum, or if not, exempt Bohol in the ruling, considering that the guideline has been designed with the idea that farmers own big landholdings.

“This does not fit us,” he said, adding to the local DA authorities that they could have informed Capitol earlier so there would have been enough time to act.

The distribution of hybrid seeds start now as the program is set to run this May planting season, onwards.

And with the state weather bureau hoisting the El Niño Alert up, the governor hinted that, to ready for any eventuality, Bohol is coming up with a supplemental budget.

The additional emergency budget measure will allow most farmers smaller farms readied for rice, the high yielding seeds to be able to also raise food for their families enough to tide up the drought, and possibly help feed Bohol, its tourism industry and help the regional rice consumption requirement.

On this, the governor, along with key officials in the agriculture sector is set to determine and secure the final list of farmers needing all the support to produce, so a local fund source could be available for them in securing their planting seeds, in the eventuality that the amend-appeal would not prosper. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)

NOT HELPING. With a possible El Niño in the offing and possible problems with the irrigation facilities incapacity to work without the rains that feed it, the DA has issued a memo giving free hybrid seeds to farmers while the dams still have water for the cropping season. However, farmers eligible for the high yielding rice seeds are only those with over 1000 square meters of rice paddies. Most farmers in Bohol own much smaller farms. (PIABOHOL)