Southern Leyte province to develop more ricefields

By BONG PEDALINO (PIA Southern Leyte)
April 27, 2008

MAASIN CITY, Southern Leyte  –  In the face of widespread clamor to devote additional areas for planting hybrid varieties of rice to increase production, the provincial government will face the challenge by doing exactly what has been widely suggested to be done to address the problem, that is, by developing other lands to be planted with the staple food.

Thus declared Gov. Damian Mercado on Friday, April 25, at the start of the Provincial Development Council (PDC) meeting held at the RK Kangleon Function House, this city.

Speaking during the Governor’s Time at the PDC meeting, Gov. Mercado said farmers in the province can expect all-out support in terms of farm inputs like fertilizers and hybrid seeds, among others, to encourage planting.

Citing a recent meeting with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap where the issue on increased rice yield and the plight of farmers were intensively discussed, the Governor acknowledged that the cooperation of the local government units in the fields is crucial to the success of the latest initiative.

“The LGUs will be the frontline in finding solutions to the rice price crisis,” he added, even as he stressed that the problem is not just felt in the Philippines but a global phenomenon.

He also allayed fears of a shortage in rice supply in the province and other parts of the country, while he quoted news reports seen on TV of rice hoarders that were responsible in the soaring of rice prices.

He said the province would take advantage of the many projects now made available through the Department of Agriculture (DA), one of which was for the acquisition of a mechanical mobile dryer, a post-harvest facility, where 200 cavans of palay can be dried at one setting.

Because it can be transferable, the dryer can be moved from one place to another so that wastage and damage in the traditional process of drying the palay can be eliminated.