SAN JOSE, Antique – The Office of the Provincial Agriculturist (OPA) is optimistic that palay harvest in this province could reach the target of 250,000 metric tons this year.
According to OPA chief Nicolasito Calawag, farmers in this province were able to plant early amid coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic as they have received various materials from the Department of Agriculture (DA) in Region 6.
The first cropping in Antique, which covers 43,000 hectares of rice land including the 20,000 hectares irrigated rice area, was slated from May to August.
Calawag said the DA-6 office has delivered to farmers in this province 36,425 bags of inbred seeds of and 17,582 bags of fertilizers under the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF).
“Of the total 36,425 bags of seeds, we were only able to distribute 32,332 bags to farmers as of July 20,” said Calawag, adding that they were also able to hand out 11,043 bags of fertilizers.
The OPA will finish distributing the remaining 4,093 bags of seeds to farmers by end of August.
Under DA’s Rice Resiliency project for expanded hybrids, meanwhile, Antique was allocated with 9,675 bags of seeds – 7,331 were actually delivered to this province.
“OPA already distributed 1,475 bags of seeds,” Calawag said.
He revealed that there was another rice support given by the DA that allowed farmers to plant early for the first cropping which are now mostly on the vegetative stage.
“The DA support to farmers has really increased as compared with those given in the previous years. (Before,) this province only received a few bags of seeds and fertilizers which could be enough for about 4,000 hectares of irrigated lands,” he said. For the first cropping in this province this year, 80 to 90 percent of the 20,000 hectares irrigated rice lands had been subsidized or received seeds and fertilizers from the DA-6, Calawag added. (With a report from PNA/PN)
