Govt giving out fertilizers, seeds– not bullets–to fight insurgency
THE government’s agriculture department plans to roll out a P30-billion fertilizer program starting this year following the directive of President Duterte to purchase fertilizer and seeds instead of bullets to quell the communist insurgency movement in the Philippines.
Duterte also vowed that he will fast-track the distribution of fertilizers as well as land owned by the government, which are not being utilized.
The Chief Executive said he decided to pour government funds to giving fertilizers after Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol told him planting materials are needed by insurgents.
“We just keep on buying bullets. You should stop fighting. I don’t want to buy more bullets; it’s a waste of money. Every bullet fired is worth a hundred and thirty,” he said in a speech on Friday during the ceremonial distribution of certificate of land ownership awards (Cloa) in Sagay, Negros Occidental. “We can use that to buy fertilizers, seedlings and corn.”
Rice, corn
ACCORDING to Piñol, the president also vowed to instruct Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez to fund the National Fertilizer Support Program (NFSP).
“The [NFSP], when implemented, is expected to boost the production of rice and corn in the country because one of the most important needs of farmers is the ample supply of fertilizer for their farms,” he said in an online post.
“The budget of the DA last year was only P56 billion, while the fertilizer program, if implemented, is P30 billion. With the Presidential directive, however, the DA will implement the program this year as soon as it receives the funding from the Department of Budget and Management,” he added.
The NFSP would be implemented on a “roll-over” loaning scheme wherein farmers would have to repay after harvest the fertilizer provided to them by the DA, according to Piñol.
“Under the [scheme], each farmer recipient will be initially given the fertilizer he needs without any payment but he will be asked to return to the program the value of the fertilizer given to him so that he could be given supplies for the next planting season,” he explained.
Piñol added that, according to the DA proposal, the scheme in the NFSP will ensure the sustainability and the accountability of the project.
The DA has identified the insufficient fertilizer application by farmers as one of the culprits for low-crop productivity, the agriculture chief said.
“A DA study shows that one of the reasons for the low productivity of rice and corn farmers is the low fertilization rate of their farms because of the high price of fertilizers,” Piñol said.
“While most farms would require between six to eight bags of fertilizer to achieve maximum productivity, many farmers only apply two to four bags,” Piñol added. Farmlands
DUTERTE has recently ordered the Department of Agrarian Reform under Executive Order 75 to acquire government-owned agricultural lands for eventual distribution to qualified beneficiaries.
The President also said in the same speech that the war with the communist rebels will not end if the government will not give them land.
“That’s the problem: we give them lands without fertilizers; they need time to prepare,” Duterte said. “Maybe perhaps after five seasons of rice planting, you will start to earn a little. You don’t have to go back to the rebel movement.”
Aside from fertilizers, the President also promised to give cellular phones to CLOA recipients “so they could easily report complaints.”
The CLOAs that were distributed covered a total of 1,609 hectares acquired land situated in eight cities and 11 municipalities in Negros Occidental, one of the provinces covered with vast private agricultural lands.
A total of 3,423 CLOAs were issued to representatives of 2,495 beneficiaries in Barangay Kauswagan in Sagay City.
According to DAR, 485 beneficiaries who received their land titles have already been provided with essential support services from their department, including credit facilitation and av ailment, capacity development, trainings, provision of common service facilities, livelihood support, agricultural extension services, program beneficiaries development lawyering and market linkages, among others.