BUTUAN CITY – The Department of Agriculture in the Caraga Region (DA-13) remains bullish about achieving 100 percent rice sufficiency by 2025.
The region has approximately 97,000 hectares of agricultural lands now devoted to rice farming, Marissa Garces, DA-13 agribusiness and marketing assistance division supervising agriculturist, said in an interview on Friday.
She said the total land area planted with rice in the region is at 90 percent, or 108,000 hectares.
“The rice self-sufficiency rate in the region in 2022 was recorded at 92 percent. We are seeing an increase to 111.27 percent this year, 119.6 percent next year, and 124.1 percent in 2025. By 2028, Caraga is seen to achieve 138.25 percent rice sufficiency,” Garces said.
The Masagana Rice Industry Development Program, implemented under President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., can achieve the set targets, she noted.
The program aims for 97.5 percent rice self-sufficiency in the country by 2028 coupled with affordable prices, prosperous rice-based farming communities, and a nutritious rice-secured population.
“Through the guidance of the President’s program, we need to optimize our rice yields, which steadily increased since last year,” Garces said.
In 2022, the region produced 3.20 metric tons of rice, which increased to 3.2 metric tons in the first six months of this year.
The rice program strategies include resilience and stability in adapting to climate change, unity, and convergence in farming clusters and consolidation, motivated farmer-entrepreneurs in the rice value chain, and timeliness and relevant focus on digital transformation.
Garces said the DA-13 also aims to reduce production losses by promoting farm mechanization and urging farmers to plant high-quality and high-breed rice seeds.
Training and education among rice farmers on advanced technologies are also vital in helping the region cope with its targets, as well as the provision of farm facilities to rice farms through irrigation, she said. (PNA)
