Rice Self Sufficiency program on track - Alcala

by Ed De Leon

LEGAZPI CITY, Jan. 28 (PIA) -- The rice self sufficiency program of the Aquino administration is on track according to Agriculture Secretary Proceso J. Alcala.

Alcala made the revelation during a press conference here Thursday (Jan. 26) after distributing P1.23 million worth of livelihood checks to 123 beneficiaries from Albay and P14.4 worth of farm equipment.

He explained that the target rice harvest of 18.75 million metric tons this year is still short by 1.3 MMT compared to the rice sufficiency requirement of 20.05 MMT.

Alcala said that the rice harvest last year was recorded at 17.2 MMT while the rice sufficiency requirement was 19.66 MMT.

He said that the rice harvest in 2013 would be equal to the rice sufficiency requirement of 20.44MMT.

He explained that to attain higher yield the government has allocated P24.7 billion for this year some P24.7Billion worth of irrigation projects are now ready for implementation which would result to restoring and constructing new irrigation facilities which will irrigate an additional 150,000 hectares of rice farms all over the country.

Alcala said the country has some 3.12M hectares of irrigable areas of which 1.54M ha had been developed and constructed with irrigation facilities.

Alcala was here yesterday at the first leg of his two day visit and met with farmers, fishermen and local government officials of Albay and Sorsogon and distributed livelihood checks and farm equipment to farmer beneficiaries. (MAL/Ed de Leon, PIA V)