CROPPING SCHEDULE. President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. holds a meeting with officials of the Department of Agriculture and concerned agencies at Malacañan Palace on Tuesday (Feb. 28, 2023). Marcos said the country’s agricultural sector must use a “detailed” cropping schedule to ensure that agricultural imports would not harm local production. (Photo courtesy of Bongbong Marcos’ Facebook page)
MANILA – President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. said Tuesday the country’s agricultural sector must use a “detailed” cropping schedule to ensure that agricultural imports would not harm local production.
In a news release, the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) said Marcos pitched this idea during a meeting with officials of the Department of Agriculture (DA) and other concerned agencies at Malacañan Palace.
A cropping schedule or cropping calendar is a schedule of the rice growing season from the fallow period and land preparation, to crop establishment and maintenance, to harvest and storage, according to the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).
Marcos, who heads the DA, asked agriculture officials to go into more detail on the cyclical nature of crops in the Philippines to avoid importing products during the harvest season.
He said the agency must consider the “sensitivities” of local cropping, particularly their cyclical nature when sourcing products abroad.
“Hindi tayo nag-i-import ng kahit anong produkto pagka maraming production para naman magamit natin lahat ng production na galing sa Pilipinas (We do not import any product when there is high production so that we can use all of the country’s production),” he said.
“Kung mag-i-import lang tayo, kung talagang may kulang (We only import if a product is really lacking) and that’s what I mean about the cyclical nature of crops, that we have to be sensitive to that.”
Marcos said changing the planting schedule in some areas of the Philippines to take advantage of the moving rainy season may bring some benefits as farmers can have three cropping cycles a year.
He, however, said the agricultural sector must also learn to “adjust accordingly” as climate change “complicates things.”
Aside from cropping schedules, Marcos and DA officials also discussed the country’s rice demand outlook for this year.
The DA also presented to Marcos interventions to ensure enough supply of corn, pork, chicken, fish, sugar, and rice.
It also recommended the continuous implementation of integrated national swine production initiatives for recovery and expansion programs to speed up the recovery of the hogs sector from African swine fever.
She said the meeting also tackled wealth production in agriculture by strategically implementing convergence initiatives.
Last year, the agriculture, forestry and fisheries (AFF) sector performed modestly at 0.5 percent.
The modest growth was attributed to the positive Gross Value Added (GVA) growth of 2.3 percent in livestock and 6.7 percent in poultry despite the decline in the performance of the crops and fisheries subsectors by -1.1 percent and -3.5 percent, respectively.
Under the Marcos administration’s Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028, the DA is targeting a growth rate of 1.8 percent to 3.3 percent in the agricultural sector from 2023 to 2028. (PNA)
