DA Secretary Visits Samar and Leyte
The Department of Agriculuture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol visited the Samar province on 13 July as he starts the campaign trail for food security and poverty alleviation program. In a dialogue with provincial governors and representatives, he shared his plan to transform the three provinces of Samar Island into a major food producer in the country. “Samar Island is practically abundant in natural resources which are not being utilized well because of the twisted mind sets of the local officials. We should be able to harness the richness of these resources in order to transform these idle provinces into a food-basket hub in the country,” he said. The secretary introduced the Special Area for Agriculture Development (SAAD), the secretary’s strategy in attaining agricultural development and poverty alleviation. Piñol aims to prioritize those listed as the top ten provinces with high poverty incidence in the country. He guaranteed stakeholders of an aggressive agriculture program over the next six years.
The department will set up project management offices in the three Samar provinces to oversee the government projects in the region. “Projects with a turnaround of six months to one year will be implemented to achieve changes that can immediately be felt by the people,” Secretary Piñol said. The secretary Piñol added that the government is targeting a reduction in poverty incidence by at least 25% for the three provinces within the next two years. “That can only be done if there’s palay production, livestock, and tree farming,” he said. “If we can come up with 1,000 hectares of production area, one hectare per family, that’s already 1,000 families out of poverty,” he exclaimed. Products that will be prioritized include rice, corn, and livestock.
On the second day of his visit in the region, Secretary Piñol and the team went to Southern Leyte to attend the Forum of Abaca Farmers in Sogod. The forum was attended by abaca farmers and private company buyers of abaca. The secretary discussed his policy directives on abaca production. He vowed to provide interventions such as planting materials, fertilizers, trainings, farmer insurance, and establishment of abaca integrated laboratory. He also gave his commitments to help fight the problem of disease infestation on abaca plantations in the municipalities of Southern Leyte. He said that 100 million will be allocated for the rehabilitation and enhancement of abaca farming industry in the whole region. “The plan is not to only provide you with seedlings, but also fertilizers. I will download enough fund for the procurement of fertilizers and other abaca planting materials,” he said.
The secretary reminded the abaca farmers about President Duterte’s advocacy to provide an accessible and affordable food to every Filipino. He emphasized that to be able to realize this, everyone must cooperate for the implementation of aggressive agriculture program during the administration of President Duterte. “We are here to help, so we will give all that we could give. After all, this is for the development of the agriculture sector in the region,” the Secretary stressed.