THE National Food Authority provincial office personnel in Davao City were paid a surprise visit by former NFA administrator Jesus T. Tanchanco last Dec. 28. He was welcomed by regional director Edgar S. Bentulan, provincial manager Antonio C. Arañas and employees.
During his vacation in Davao City with his family, he found time to drop by the office to reminisce on the time when he ran the agency prior to the EDSA Revolution. Citing among others the reasons and circumstances why the agency was created, Tanchanco said Presidential Decree No. 4 which created the National Grains Authority (NGA) was a product of a two-year careful deliberation and consultations by members of the Cabinet and Congress before the declaration of Martial Law.
It may be recalled that the NGA was the first agency created by President Ferdinand Marcos after Martial Law was declared to replace the defunct Rice and Corn Administration (RCA). The agency later morphed into the National Food Authority when it was mandated to cover other non-grains food products, including wheat flour.
The former NFA head reminisced on the time when he was its administrator, saying that in the early days of the cereal agency the Philippines exported rice and other food products to countries like Brazil, Indonesia and the United States.
He also shared that the NFA was even then acknowledged by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Bank in their studies as a model agency because of its performance. Boosting employees’ morale, Tanchanco added that negative reports about the NFA these days are not true and employees should not believe in the zarzuela going around.
Saddened by the damage to lives and agriculture done by the heavy rains and floods that recently hit Mindanao and other parts of the country, and wary of those still to come, the former NFA chief said the government should promote the production of hybrid rice. He said this is the key to rice-sufficiency.
Tanchanco is an advocate of the SL8 hybrid variety of rice because of its high yield of 12 tons per hectare. He said the SL8 hybrid rice is a variety developed by one Henry Lim, who also has his hybrid seed production station in Banaybanay, Davao Oriental, after his visit to China where the original variety came from.
He said he has known Henry Lim to be a Filipino who loves his country and intends to stay here here for the rest of his life. Lim is exporting this hybrid rice to Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar, In fact, he had being hired by these countries to assist in their rice production, Tanchanco said.
