DA revises policies, strategies to enhance FIELDS implementation

MANILA, Oct. 6 (PNA) -- The Department of Agriculture (DA) has revised its food security policies and strategies for the effective and efficient implementation of the FIELDS (fertilizer, irrigation and infrastructure, extension and education services, loan assistance, dryers and other postharvest facilities, seeds) program.

Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap underscored this point in response to the management audit report done by the Commission on Audit (CoA) on the implementation of the DA’s banner program Ginintuang Masaganang Ani (GMA).

In a letter to CoA Commissioner Reynaldo Villar, the DA chief said that under the fertilizers component of FIELDS, the department has incorporated an organic fertilizer program to provide farmers with cheaper and more sustainable alternative inputs in view of the high cost of petroleum-based fertilizers triggered by rising prices of oil and demand for bio-fuel production in other countries.

The program, coordinated by the Bureau of Soils and Water Management (BSWM), calls for an accelerated production of organic fertilizers (rapid composting, vermin-culture, etc.) in partnership with local government units (LGUs), church-based people organizations and qualified non-government organizations, he said.

Yap said the long-term goal is for farmers, through their clusters, to produce their own organic fertilizers.

At the same time, he said, the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), in consultation with the DA Regional Field Units (RFUs), has fine-tuned the schedule of location-specific interventions or LSIs (mainly micro-nutrients and soil ameliorants) to enhance palay productivity or reduce costs, given the different agro-climatic characteristics of our rice growing areas.

For the irrigation component, Yap said, the DA is focusing on the rehabilitation and restoration of systems rather than the construction of new facilities.

He said the prioritization criteria of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) for current and future restoration and rehabilitation projects are the incremental area contribution (in terms of physical area or cropping intensity) of the completely restored or rehabilitated irrigation system; and location in major palay-producing provinces.

Recognizing that rehabilitation and restoration of irrigation infrastructure alone will not be sufficient to enable required increases in rice productivity, Yap said the NIA is developing programs that focus on "good system management" through the provision of "appropriate capacity development and performance-based incentives as well as a redistribution of risks between NIA and irrigators associations."

For the Extension component, he said, the DA is focusing on the retooling and training of 8,000 LGU-based extension personnel on efficient rice production and post production technologies in partnership with the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI), PhilRice, the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), and major regional State Universities and Colleges (SUCs); the training of 900,000 farmers through season-long Farmer Field Schools; and the creation of Barangay Food Security Volunteers promoting village-based participatory research and extension addressing whole-farm production systems.

These SUCs include the University of the Philippines (UP) in Los Banos, Laguna; Central Luzon State University (CLSU); Central Mindanao University (CMU); University of Southern Mindanao (USM); and Don Mariano Marcos State University (DMMSU).

For Loans, Yap said, the DA is encouraging greater participation by credit institutions in providing funds to farmers by helping establish a P7.5-billion Guarantee Fund Pool to be administered by the Land Bank of the Philippines.

The Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC) has been tasked to closely monitor the implementation of the credit program under the Guarantee Fund Pool, he said.

"We are confident that as more farmers have ready access to credit for their production needs, we can terminate subsidy intervention measures, especially with regard to seeds and fertilizers, which are prone to irregularities and abuse," he noted.

On the other hand, Yap said, the dryers and postharvest facilities component of FIELDs for 2008-2010 involves the construction and operations of bio-mass driven mechanical dryers to ensure sustained operations by farmer cooperatives amid the high fuel costs and to provide farmers efficient post-harvest options to currently utilize and highly inefficient multiple drying pavements.

Efficient postharvest facilities will enable farmers to lower postharvest losses from 4.5 percent to 2.5 percent, as well as produce quality palay that will enable them to earn more by selling their produce at higher prices, he said.

On Seeds, Yap said, the DA recognizes the potentials of hybrids at increasing farmer’s productivity, but its Seed Component Plan also places strong emphasis on the extensive usage of certified seeds of HYVs or inbreds that are responsive to irrigated, rainfed and upland rice ecosystems; unique or sub-optimal rice environments; specific seasons/micro-climatic conditions; and commercial and niche markets.

For the 2008-2009 dry season crop, he bared that a full subsidy scheme of P1,200 per bag for inbred certified seeds covering 1.6 million hectares has been put in place to get farmers to shift from ordinary farmers’ own saved seeds to certified seeds.