The government has launched a color-coded national agricultural map that analyzes agricultural efficiency and land use, one intervention deemed to meet the country’s food sufficiency target.
The map details factors affecting agri-fishery production, such as soil properties, water availability, climate topography, and regional level economics and demography.
Its launch on Thursday was led by Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol and officials of the Department of Agriculture and Adaptation and Mitigation Initiative in Agriculture (AMIA).
The agricultural map is one of several interventions that Piñol initiated in the past five months to fulfill President Rodrigo Duterte’s promise of food sufficiency by the end of his term.
Piñol has also been pushing other major interventions to boost the agriculture sector, including the national food consumption quantification survey, irrigation projects, corporate rice farming, and mechanization and post-harvest facilities.
The DA is currently undertaking the food consumption quantification survey which gives accurate statistics on food supply and consumption.
For the first time in the history of rice farming in the country, irrigation water will be provided free by the National Irrigation Administration starting next year.
Piñol said his department is also moving towards solar-powered and small irrigation projects.
Corporate rice farming, meanwhile, will directly link farmer producers with corporate buyers, including the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s (DWSD) Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) rice ration program to free it from the manipulation of traders and middlemen.
The program will also give farmers access to quality rice seeds and fertilizers.
“Mechanization and post-harvest facilities (are) one area where the DA will focus its resources on in the coming years of the Duterte administration,” he added.(PNA)
