BY MARCHEL P. ESPINA
The Department of Agriculture in Western Visayas is targeting to cover 300,000 hectares for rice in August, its director, Remelyn Recoter, said.
Recoter said the distribution of seeds and fertilizers is ongoing in local government units through the city and municipal agriculturists.
“While the region’s planting for the wet season has been delayed due to delayed onset of the rainy season, we are still hopeful that the targeted 300,000 plus hectares of rice areas will be planted by August,” she said.
She added “while we pray for everyone’s safety against Covid-19, we likewise pray for good weather to ensure an increase in food production especially our staple food.”
As of Saturday, 610,580 bags of urea fertilizer were delivered to the LGUs in the region while 183,567 bags were distributed to 90,950 farmers.
A total of 15,000 bags of inbred seeds were delivered to LGUs and 9,780 bags were released to 7,776 farmers, while 68,234 bags of hybrid seeds were delivered to the localities, and 25,457 bags were distributed to 19,546 farmers.
Farmers in Negros Occidental received 33,268 bags of urea fertilizer and 6,214 bags of hybrid seeds.
Earlier, Recoter said the DA is looking forward to increase the rice production in Western Visayas by 10 percent from its 2019 yield through the support extended to farmers under its Rice Resiliency Project.
The department has allocated P1.06 billion in assistance to rice farmers in the region under the Bayanihan We Heal as One Act.*
