(PNA File photo)
BUTUAN CITY – The strengthened agricultural programs and services implemented under the Duterte administration resulted in an increase in the production of the corn and palay (unhusked rice) industries in the Caraga region.
Data provided by the Department of Agriculture (DA) 13 (Caraga) on Tuesday showed farmers engaged in white and yellow corn production in the region gained an average yield of 3.52 metric tons (MT) per hectare of harvest from 2016 to 2020.
Last year, the total corn production in the region reached up to 157,639.11 MT, the data from DA-13 showed.
Most corn farmers in the region are also engaged in cassava production, providing additional income for their families.
Cassava production in Caraga likewise improved from 17,673.95 MT in 2019 to 19,293.87 MT in 2020, the department said.
Support services provided by the DA to rice farmers in the region also helped raise palay production in the area under Duterte's term.
Last year, the total palay yield in the region was recorded at 503,330 MT.
The total palay harvest, the department said, has also brought the rice self-sufficiency rate of Caraga to 93.29 percent.
“The DA has strengthened its programs and services under the present administration, especially the support to farms by providing them with inputs, such as seeds and fertilizers,” DA-13 information officer Emmylou Presilda told the Philippine News Agency (PNA).
Presilda added that the use of new technologies and farm mechanization also helped the farmers in Caraga boost their production in the past six years.
Farming modernization
From 2016, a total of 3,230 units of agricultural machinery and equipment were released to the different rice and corn farmers’ associations in Caraga under the DA's mechanization program to help them improve their production.
For this year alone, a total of PHP349.1 million worth of farm machinery and equipment were handed over by DA-13 to the different rice farmers’ associations and cooperatives in the region.
Among the biggest turnover activities conducted this year were facilitated in the provinces of Surigao del Sur and Agusan del Norte and Butuan City.
Last February, the DA-13 turned over a total of PHP149.4 million worth of farm machinery and equipment to the different farmers’ associations and cooperatives in Surigao del Sur through the provincial government.
In the same month, 12 farmers’ associations in Agusan del Norte and three from Butuan City were also provided by the agriculture department with PHP42.4 million worth of machinery, to include 13 units of four-wheel-drive tractors, 11 hand tractors, 18 floating trailers, six rice-combine harvesters, and two transplanters.
In March, a total of 53 rice farmers’ cooperatives and associations in Surigao del Sur also benefited from the farm mechanization program of the DA, while in April, four groups of rice farmers in Rosario, Agusan del Sur received PHP7.4 million worth of equipment.
Corn farmers in the region also received advanced farm tools through the mechanization program of the agriculture department.
For this year, a total of PHP12.5 million worth of farm machinery were handed over by DA-13 to various corn farmers’ associations in the region.
Also in February, about 210 corn farmers from the town of San Luis, Agusan del Sur were provided with PHP7.9 million worth of farm equipment, while this month of July, the two corn farmers’ organizations in Prosperidad, Agusan del Sur, and Tagbina, Surigao del Sur each received PHP2.5 million worth of machinery.
The DA-13 said they are scheduled to release more farm equipment this year, emphasizing that farm mechanization is among the priorities of the agriculture department under the Duterte administration. (PNA)
