Share on facebook
Facebook
Share on twitter
Twitter
Share on email
Email

Sustainable sufficiency

Share on facebook
Facebook
Share on twitter
Twitter
Share on email
Email

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has approved the roadmap of the Masagana Rice Industry Development Program, which seeks to achieve the highest possible rice sufficiency level by implementing various strategies, where his aim is 97.5 percent rice sufficiency in five years.

Marcos Jr., also the agriculture secretary, cited the roadmap’s target during a rice industry convergence meeting in Quezon City. “This convergence meeting, I think, has given us a good roadmap to follow, but many can still happen between now and our goal of having a 97.5 self-sufficiency in rice,” the President said.

“You do not have to really go to 100 percent because the three percent is for niche products – the organic, special grain, Japanese rice, and the like,” he said. “We do not need to provide that. But with 97 percent, we can say that we can feed all our countrymen with enough rice supply.”

The Presidential Communications Office said the Masagana Rice Industry Development Program is designed to “support rice farmers, increase rice production, and strengthen the rice value chain.” It will be carried out through several strategies like climate change adaptation, farm clustering and consolidation, value chain approach, and digital transformation.

Interestingly, the program has a similar name to Masagana 99, the 1973 rice program of Marcos’ late father and namesake that sought to address a rice shortage and boost production which met some initial success but was unsustainable due to being saddled with credit program issues.

Marcos Jr. enumerated various measures to boost agricultural production and assist the farming sector during the meeting. Through convergence, assets, resources, funding, and technology could be made readily available to farmers, he said.

The goal of making a country self-sufficient with its staple food is always laudable, and Filipinos will surely benefit from a successful and sustainable Masagana program. As the current Marcos administration attempts to pivot from the import-centric rice policy of its predecessor and transform the industry that over the decades, has been left behind by its peers in the region, into one that is productive and self-sufficient, it certainly has our support. Hopefully this version of Masagana will be a better one for the Philippine rice industry.*

ARCHIVES

Read Article by date

March 2024
MTWTFSS
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031

Get your copy of the Visayan Daily Star everyday!

Avail of the FREE 30-day trial.