The Department of Agriculture (DA) on February 13 pledged to deliver before the next planting season five 100-horsepower large tractors and other farm implements to Tawi-Tawi, the country’s southernmost province and backdoor which is aiming to develop its own rice industry, Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said.
During a meeting with Tawi-tawi Governor Rashidin Matba, Piñol said he was given assurances the province “is aiming for rice self-sufficiency and targets to develop 6,000 hectares of new rice farmlands to feed a population of about 100,000.”
The province at present has less than 200 hectares planted to rice, most of them in Bongao, Languyan and Mapun, largely because it has relied on smuggled rice believed that are selling cheap in the local commercial market.
“The low price resulted in the province relying mainly on smuggled rice instead of developing its rice industry,” Piñol said.
Matba said smuggled rice was sold at P750 per 25-kilo bag for a time, or P30 per kilo, which is lower than the commercial rice sold in the market.
Smuggled rice believed to come from Vietnam were shipped through Malaysia and brought to the provinces of Tawi-Tawi, Sulu, Basilan and even Zamboanga Peninsula.
The people of the province are also relatively well-off compared to those in the other provinces. Tawi-Tawi has the lowest poverty incidence in the Bangsamoro Area with a poverty incidence of only 20.8% compared to Lanao del Sur’s 74.3%.
Piñol said Matba and other provincial government officials told him the province “does not like to go through another rice supply crisis which they suffered last year when Malaysia closed its borders with the Philippines.”
The new rice production areas, when fully developed and productive, are expected to produce more than enough for the province where people have cassava as their second staple food.
“Tawi-Tawi hopes to reverse its fortune, from a net importer of smuggled rice to an exporter of high quality rice to neighboring Malaysia,” Piñol wrote.
The DA Chief said he would send next week some 20 provincial agriculture technicians and farmer leaders to the PhilRice Center in Muñoz, Nueva Ecija to undergo training in modern rice farming technology.
“Upon their return to the province, the farm implements committed by the DA along with the seeds and the needed fertilizers will be delivered,” Piñol wrote.
Aside from the five big tractors, the DA will also deliver to Tawi-Tawi five 45-hp tractors, two mechanized transplanters, two mechanized harvesters, mechanical dryers, storage facilities and a rice-processing center.
Solar-powered irrigation projects will also be established in the rice-production areas because the province has very few rivers to supply irrigation water to rice farms.
Those who accompanied Matba in the meeting were Vice Governor Tati Ahaja, Bongao Mayor Jimuel Que, Turtle Islands Mayor Benie Oliveros, board members and other local officials. (DA-OSEC)
Reference:
Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol
