Loren pushes diversified agricultural dev't program

Senator Loren Legarda urged today the government to diversify its agricultural development program in 2008 instead of limiting it to promoting hybrid rice and genetically modified crops.

Legarda noted that while the hybrid rice subsidy program was supposed to have ended in 2007, the Department of Agriculture had sought for a three-year extension on the subsidy.

"Legislators have questioned the massive subsidies spent on hybrid seeds during budget deliberations," said Legarda.

"The contention basically is that increased hybrid rice adoption and production have not materialized," she added.

Legarda pointed out that farmers' adoption of hybrid seeds had been slow, reaching peak coverage of 11 percent of total rice area in 2005.

She noted a study that the size of the hybrid target area was bigger than the actual area planted with hybrids because of seed deterioration and geographic mismatch between demand and supply.

"While the rate of hybrid seed adoption increased from five percent in 2004 to 11 percent in 2005, the drop-out rate ranged from 50 percent to a high of 99 percent."

Legarda said the high drop-out rate meant that farmers who have tried using hybrid rice seeds had reverted to using non-hybrid seeds.

The DA has reported that the production target area for hybrid rice seeds this year is 500,000 hectares, with the government subsidy for each bag of 20 kilos of hybrid seeds amounting to about P1,000.

With the total area of rice-harvested land in the country being four million hectares, the government would be spending P500 million for hybrid rice subsidy covering only 500,000 hectares or 12.5 percent of total rice lands.

Legarda said that tangible benefits for farmers in terms of increased production should be derived from any agricultural development program for it to justify government appropriations of limited public funds.

A recent World Bank report on public expenditures of the DA criticized the largest slice of production support (about 85 percent) allocated to the Ginintuang Masaganang Ani (GMA) rice program, said a non-governmental organization in its Proposed Alternative Budget for Agriculture.

"The same report found the sizeable amount of money and public human resources spent on [the DA's] Hybrid Rice Commercialization Program (HRCP) did not produce much net social benefit," the NGO said.

Legarda said diversifying the government agricultural programs can lessen the risk in case of failure of the present flagship programs.

She emphasized that sustainable agriculture practices were proven to be suited for poor and cash-strapped farmers.

In particular, Legarda urged the government to help farmers problems like insect pests and diseases, water, fertilizer, seeds and soil management and weed control.