DA: Price spikes driving Bohol to self-sufficiency

CEBU, Philippines — Bohol is now seeking to achieve food self-sufficiency amid the noted high prices of food commodities in the island province, said Department of Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol.

Piñol announced he met with Bohol's local leaders last week to address supply and prices of food in the island.

"For a province surrounded by wide seas, it is almost unthinkable that one of Bohol Province's biggest problems is the very high price of fish," the agriculture chief said in his official social media account.

Bohol also has vast rice fields but the price of rice in the market is so high that consumers have been complaining, Piñol further said.

He also noted that meat, vegetables, fruits and other food commodities "are priced so high that even tourists who come to the island in droves have also taken notice."

Piñol attributed the high cost of fish in Bohol to the absence of a cold storage to consolidate the fish catch.

"Fish caught in the waters around the island is brought to Cebu and then shipped back to Bohol simply because even such basic facilities as ice plants are very limited," the DA chief said.

Last Thursday, officials decided to build a cold storage and ice plant in Tubigon town which will serve as the consolidation point of all the catch in the waters off the island.

From Tubigon, refrigerated vans will be used in distributing the fish to the different towns of the island.

"Fish aggregating devices or 'Payao' will also be established around the island while fiberglass fishing boats will be provided to the poor fisher folk," Piñol said.

Moreover, Bohol's rice production remains low at 2.6 metric tons per harvest because its rice farming system remains primitive.

"Even with a vast rice production area of about 50,000 hectares, Bohol could hardly supply the needs of its own people," he noted.

The DA plans to introduce its Production Loan Easy Access (PLEA) program through the Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC) to give financing to rice farmers.

Bohol must also intensify the use of hybrid rice seeds as each town in the province targets at least 50 percent of the rice farms to be planted to hybrid seeds.

Hybrid rice seeds experimental planting in the province showed that the yield could hit as much as 11 metric tons per hectare.

"Rice processing facilities will be established in every 5,000-hectare area to be operated by farmers cooperatives who will be provided with P5-milliom working capital so they could buy the produce of their members and sell the rice directly through the Bigas ng Masa Program," Piñol said.

He said ACPC officials is going to Bohol this week to orient farmers and farmers associations and cooperatives on the loaning program.

He said Bohol is expected to be able to produce enough food for its people and the increasing number of tourists at prices which would be affordable to the consumers. (FREEMAN)