Agriculture

By Rose de la Cruz President Marcos is certifying as urgent a bill that would amend the Rice Tariffication Law – which is due for review this year – and the charter of the National Food Authority to return the government’s influence in the local rice market, esp. when prices go berserk Five years ago, Congress passed the Rice Tariffication …

Biologist and Balik Scientist Dr. Nikki Heherson Dagamac is on a mission to assess and monitor the elusive tamaraw (Bubalus mindorensis) in Mindoro to protect it from extinction. Through Project MATAPAT (or Multidisciplinary Approaches for Tamaraw Protection against Threats), he seeks to assess the current status of tamaraw in Mt. Calavite Wildlife Sanctuary (MCWS) and identify priority areas of conservation …

By Rose de la Cruz With damage to rice from El Nino placed at P1.72 billion of 72,733 metric tons planted in 34,264 hectares as of April 1 and water resources practically drying up, The Department of Agriculture is saying its wishful thought about reduced rice imports this year, when historically even during abundant harvest, the DA has been increasing …

With diabetes continuing as the fourth leading cause of death in the Philippines– affecting mostly obese people but can even afflict the healthiest weighing Filipino– a change from sedentary to active lifestyle with foods low in cholesterol (particularly controlled rice intake) being advised to prevent further deterioration of one’s health, the International Rice Research Institute based in Los Banos, is …

By Rose de la Cruz What took the leadership of former Undersecretary for Rice Industry Development Leocadio Sebastian months to organize, mobilize and scale – the Masagana Rice Industry Development Program (MIRDP) – was overridden by the exemptions sought by regional directors from the voucher system, a vital strategy of MIRDP and the return to procurement and distribution by RDOs …

In keeping with President Marcos and Agriculture Secrretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr.’s desire to build more warehouses and cold storage facilities to prolong the shelf life and maintain the quality of palay, rice and other agricultural produce, the Philippine Rice Research Institute with funding from the Korea Rural Community Corp. broke ground for a 540-square meter warehouse cum cold storage …

Agriculture Secretary Francisco P. Tiu Laurel, Jr. said he would  propose significant changes in DA’s  2025 budget to achieve President Marcos, Jr.’s goal of modernizing agriculture, increased food production and food security. “The budget in 2025 will be very different from this year’s,” Laurel told members of the Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food Inc. (PCAFI) recently. Apart from pushing …

Left in the dark over the controversial resorts built within the periphery of the Chocolate Hills in Sagbayan, Bohol, a declared protected park, Tourism Secretary Ma.Esperanza  Christina Garcia- Frasco asked to have a seat in the Protected Area Management Board of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to prevent a recurrence of such controversies that would affect the country’s …

By Rose de la Cruz At a time when El Nino is battering sugar plantations in Negros Occidental (the sugar center of the country) and Batangas, the United States is enticing us to export our raw sugar when the country already face the specter of a looming sugar shortage. The export of class A sugar (or the quota for the …

By Rose de la Cruz Regardless of an expected P1.23 billion losses to agriculture from El Nino, the Philippine Statistics Authority made its bravest projection that palay production for the first quarter would still hit 4.8 million metric tons, slightly higher than the 4.78 MMT for the comparative period in 2023. The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council had …