Rice for quarantined communities

City workers on Tuesday pack rice in bags for distribution to quarantined communities in Marikina City amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The Department of Agriculture on the same day proposed the importation of some 300,000 metric tons of rice to ensure food security in the country during the crisis. 

source: news.abs-cbn.com

PH to beat hunger with urban agriculture

MANILA, Philippines -- Josephine de Guzman lives beside an estero or creek in the heart of Manila, surrounded by concrete sidewalks and dilapidated buildings, but she looks forward to waking up each day to the smell of flowers and the sound of chirping birds.

Josephine's community is a unique little pocket of greenery in the midst of a congested urban jungle. "Masarap, pag gising mo, makikita mo agad yung halaman mo," she said (It feels good that when you wake up you’re able to see your plants right away).

A few years ago, an environmental group helped Josephine and her neighbors convert a tiny patch of abandoned land in their community into a thriving garden that grows vegetables, flowers and herbs. Jospehine's neighbor, Remy Patricio, said she hasn’t bought vegetables from the wet market for years because their garden grows all the vegetables her family needs, like eggplants, onions, string beans, cucumbers and sweet potatoes.

Remy said they’re lucky since vegetable prices in Manila are highly volatile. Prices of vegetables can spike up or go down almost daily. For instance, when a typhoon would hit the northern part of Luzon where most crops are grown, prices of vegetables can double, oftentimes becoming more expensive than chicken or fish.

Because of communities like Josephine’s and Remy’s, the Philippines’ Department of Agriculture (DA) saw an opportunity in urban agriculture as a way to solve the problems of malnutrition and lack of food among many city dwellers.

“Urban agriculture is essentially farming in the city,” explained Redelliza Gruezo, field officer of the country’s Agriculture Department. The DA wants to integrate farming into the daily activities of residents in urban areas. “So people in the city will not only be consumers but also producers,” Gruezo said.

Hunger and even severe hunger among Filipinos, especially those squatting in urban areas, still persist. A June 2015 survey from the Social Weather Stations estimated that 2.8 million Filipino families have experienced involuntary hunger at least once in the past three months.

“Our population is growing and we believe that urban agriculture can truly contribute to food security, for our people,” Gruezo said.

Growing plants without soil
After decades of working abroad, Rely Baluyot decided to come home and stay for good. He wanted to replicate here the urban farms he saw in his travels to the US and Japan. But there was one drawback. He had limited land space in the city and therefore not enough soil for planting - until he discovered hydroponics, a method of growing plants without soil.

Instead of soil, Rely uses a mixture of cement and coco dust with water. This mixture will serve as the base where seeds will germinate so plants can grow.

“Kahit wala kang lupa, pwede, kahit puro semento ang lugar mo pwede ka mag tanim,” Rely said (Even if you don’t have land, even if you’re surrounded by concrete, you can plant.)

The key with the hydroponics method is to constantly moisten plants with water that's been fortified with nutrients like nitrate, potassium and phosphate. Rely’s hydroponics facility is designed in such a way that allows for the automatic watering of plants and can even filter and reuse water so that it operates with 80% less water than when planting with soil.

Rely was so successful in using the hydroponics method that today, he’s not only able to grow vegetables for his family to eat but also have extra produce to sell. A particularly good harvest of his lettuce, for instance, can yield up to 900 kilos of the vegetable per week.

The Department of Agriculture is aware of the many challenges in solving the problem of hunger in the country. The DA is not without its share of controversies especially with regards to the use of its public funds.

Then there are the adverse effects of climate change like droughts and flooding that greatly diminishes crop yields.

There’s also the pressure on the government to commit to the new development agenda, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that will be put forward for adoption by Heads of States at the United Nations (UN) Summit in September this year.

One of the goals aims to end hunger by 2030. A feat that, the DA admits, can only be achieved with political will and strong partnerships with stakeholders.

Urban agriculture, according to Gruezo, is one of the crucial components of the government’s sustainable agriculture program.

Since 2011, the Department of Agriculture has helped establish urban farms in 164 communities in Metro Manila, the country’s densest megacity with over 16 million inhabitants. They have also trained 22,266 households in basic vegetable production.

While the agriculture sector grapples with its many challenges, success stories such as Josephine’s community and Rely’s garden also abound, which are perhaps enough reasons to believe that a food secure future for the Philippines is all too attainable.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Probes into rice smuggling are 'coordinated,' says De Lima

MANILA - They may be holding separate and simultaneous investigations into the rice smuggling trade in the country, but the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), Department of Agriculture (DA), and Bureau of Customs (BOC) are coordinating their efforts and sharing data, according to Justice Secretary Leila de Lima.

Fresh from the third Senate inquiry hearing into rice smuggling by the Committee on Agriculture and Food on Wednesday, De Lima said the "coordinated parallel" investigations are aimed at achieving the best results: identifying the personalities behind the illegal trade, prosecuting them before the courts, and coming up with policies to stamp out rice smuggling.

De Lima ordered the NBI, an attached agency of the Department of Justice (DOJ), to investigate rice smuggling in various ports in the country as an offshoot of the Senate Agriculture Committee's findings and recommendations in 2013.

"Kahit wala naman kami, strictly speaking, a joint probe or official probe na ginagawa ngayon, you can say we are having a coordinated parallel probe na ginagawa ngayon. Nag-iimbestiga kami, nag-iimbestiga rin sila, pero mayroonn na kaming coordinated probe.

"What exactly is coordinated parrallel probe? Nagsi-share kami ng information, nag-eexchange kami ng information with each other, nag-aassist. We are extending assistance to each other," De Lima said.

The justice chief admitted that the technical expertise of the DA and BOC will greatly help the NBI in its probe.

"NBI is investigative, pero yung mga technical aspects of the investigation, majority or the dominant facts that may be established, have to come from the data, from the inputs, from the records from the BOC and sa NFA (National Food Authority) kaya nagtutulong tulong kami sa isa't isa.

"Kaysa naman dati na walang coordinated probe; because of the coordinated probe, magkakaroon kami ng results," De Lima said.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

DA official linked to pork barrel scam replaced

MANILA - Agriculture chief Proceso Alcala on Wednesday said he ordered the Internal Audit Service to investigate alleged bogus non-government organizations linked to the P10 billion scam involving lawmakers' pork barrel funds.

In an interview, Alcala said he has already explained his side to President Aquino following an Inquirer report that the Department of Agriculture released almost P90 million to the fake NGOs linked to businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles.

He noted that it is usually lawmakers who endorse the NGOs.

Alcala told reporters it was only in August of last year that they accepted receiving and processing agri-fishery projects upon the insistence of lawmakers.

He also said that the project proposal came with a letter of endorsement from lawmakers endorsing their preferred NGOs.

He also said that only a fraction of an P83 million allocation that was supposed to be go to Kaupdanan para sa Mangunguma Foundation was released because of the safeguards set up by the department. The foundation is one of the NGOs linked to Napoles.

The DA chief has also relieved DA Assistant Secretary for Finance Ophelia Agawin of her duties in the selection of accredited NGOs by the department.

She was also asked to submit her reply to allegations that she chose the bogus NGOs that received millions of pesos in pork barrel funds.

Agawin was replaced by DA Assistant Secretary Edilberto de Luna as chair of the NGO-PO accreditation committee.

Agawin, however, will continue in her functions as assistant secretary for finance.

Alcala said he expects the Internal Audit Service to submit their initial report by tomorrow.

He vowed that whoever is guilty in his department would be punished, saying he does not tolerate corruption of taxpayers' money.

The DA reported a 1.4 percent growth increase in the agriculture industry in the first 6 months of 2013.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Farmers want audit of irrigation projects: 'So much spent, so little to show for it'

MANILA, Philippines – Farmers' groups are asking government to create an independent body to check how irrigation funds have been and are currently being used, saying project spending has not increased rice production.

Funds for irrigation programs have reached P24.4 billion for 2012, the highest on record ever received by the National Irrigation Administration (NIA), farmer-representatives said on Friday.

However, they have expressed doubts whether these funds will help the Department of Agriculture (DA) to produce enough rice to meet local demand by next year. The department earlier announced that the Philippines will become self-sufficient in rice production by 2013.

The National Rice Farmers Council (NRFC), the Pambasang Koalisyon ng Kababaihan sa Kanayunan (PKKK), the National Confederation of Irrigators Association (NCIA), and the Rice Watch Action Network (R1) have all pointed out that fund increases for irrigation have not led to higher rice yields.

Despite larger budgets for the last four years, the NIA has been unable to “significantly” expand production of the Filipino staple, the groups said, citing data from the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS).

In 2008, the NIA was given P10.9 billion to provide irrigation facilities and clean up and/or dredge canals to ensure that water from dams reach rice paddies.

Rice production for that same year only reached 16.8 million metric tons (MTs), prompting authorities to import an additional 2.7 million MTs to meet local demand.

In 2009, despite an increased budget of P17.5 billion, rice yields fell to 16.6 million MTs and imports reached 1.775 million MTs.

The NIA’s budget was cut to P16.4 billion in 2010 and production fell to 15.77 million MTs.

For 2011, funds for irrigation projects reached P10.9 billion. Although rice yields went up to 16.6 million MTs, the hike in production was owed to increase amounts of rainfall, the groups said in a statement, citing government data.

“Mahalagang malaman ng mga mamamayan na ang pagtaas na ito sa produksyon at sa panahon ng wet season kung kailan hindi talaga kailangan ng irigasyon dahil tag-ulan (It is important for the public to know that increased rice yields last year were owed to the wet season.)," the statement said.

Rice output not boosted

The groups also pointed out that since more than 691,000 hectares of the country’s 1.5 million hectares of rice lands were rehabilitated and restored from 2009 to 2011, these paddies should have helped boost the country’s rice output further.

But they haven’t.

This is because of, among others, poor program design, according to Benjamin Villanueva, executive vice president of the NCIA, which has 700,000 farmer-members.

While the government has put up small water catchments and dredged irrigation canals to ensure water distribution to rice paddies, water supplies remain insufficient, Villanueva told InterAksyon.com.

“Medyo bara-bara ang pag gastos sa projects,” he said. (Spending for irrigation projects has been imprudent.)

Without water, the irrigation facilities are useless, Villanueva said.

Maria Concepcion de los Santos, PKKK president agreed.

Irrigation canals in her community are clogged with trash, blocking water flow to her four-hectare farm, Concepcion said.

Besides ensuring that canals are trash-free, the NIA should ensure that these have concrete linings at the bottom to ensure lesser water wastage, Villanueva said.

About 25 percent of water are absorbed by the soil in canals that have no concrete linings, he added.

Both Villanueva and De los Santos said that the government has spent for the upkeep and construction of old and new irrigation facilities; the problem is that some of these funds may have not been spent prudently since many projects still have no water sources at all.

This is why they have joined other groups to seek an investigation into irrigation projects undertaken from 2007 to 2010.

For its part, the NIA has welcomed the groups’ proposal.

“We welcome it and we are ready with the data needed to show that the funds have been spent properly,” Pilipina Bermudez, NIA’s public information officer, told InterAksyon.com.

source: interaksyon.com

DA Bans Beef From Paraguay

MANILA, Philippines — No cattle or livestock from Paraguay will be allowed into the country following the outbreak of the food-and-mouth disease (FMD) in the landlocked Latin American country.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) announced the ban Tuesday after the Paris-based Office International des Epizooties (OIE) or the World Animal Health Organization confirmed the outbreak.

In Memorandum Order No. 2, Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala said the temporary ban on the importation of FMD susceptible animal products and by-products from Paraguay will stay until there is a declaration that the outbreak has been contained.

The ban is imposed universally to protect herds from being infected as well as to prevent the possible entry of unsafe meat products.

Alcala also issued Memorandum Order No. 3, which also slapped a temporary freeze on the importation of domestic and wild birds, including poultry meat, day-old chicks, eggs and semen, from Melbourne and Victoria, Australia.

source: mb.com.ph