DA on the Masagana rice program

The success of the six-year Masagana Rice Industry Development Program (MRIDP) hinges largely not on us technocrats at the Department of Agriculture (DA) but on the key players themselves, most notably the organized farmers’ groups – whose farms should be clustered and consolidated to attain economies of scale and cost-efficient operations – and that they should be fully supported by their respective local government executives and agricultural officers and extension workers.

Through the MRIDP, we aim to attain a higher level of national rice sufficiency by increasing productivity or average yield per hectare through the massive adoption of modern and mechanical technologies by clusters of organized farmers’ groups. These include irrigators’ associations (IAs), agrarian reform beneficiaries’ organizations (ARBOs) and farmers’ cooperatives and associations (FCAs).

Their clustered and consolidated farms should be provided with needed irrigation, farm-to-market roads, post harvest facilities, accessible and affordable credit and marketing support.

As you are aware, prior to the launch of the MRIDP by President Marcos, we held a two-day (May 30-31) national rice industry convergence at the DA’s National Irrigation Administration in Quezon City, where we sought to strengthen cooperation and collaboration among stakeholders so we could effectively integrate and implement the government’s integrated rice programs. In particular, we discussed future and urgent activities and timelines to undertake what you dubbed as a “Masagana 99 redux.”

During the convergence – that brought together dozens of stakeholders such as the DA and other government agencies, research institutions, IAs, FCAs and the private sector – we unanimously agreed to pool our limited resources, share knowledge and coordinate all efforts to achieve our common goal.

Indeed, the MRIDP entails resurrecting Masagana 99, which was implemented five decades back, but this time we tweaked it to involve the stakeholders themselves directly, thus the need for a national convergence and an understanding and appreciation of what we intend to attain at the end of “Marcos administration 2.0.”

As you said, we want to make Masagana work and materialize this time. We aspire to achieve more than 97 percent rice sufficiency while providing farmers with sustainable and profitable income from planting our staple crop.

We are one with you as we once and for all surmount the major challenges that hounded and stymied our rice sector. We all want it to cleanse its tarnished image as a political commodity, as a real fuel and source of food security and national economic growth.

We, therefore, urge our farmers, LGU chiefs, farm technicians and key stakeholders to move as one united force to reach our desired outcome.

We aim to strengthen the country’s rice industry value chain, from input suppliers to farmers, miller, traders and consumers. – Leocadio S. Sebastian, Undersecretary for Rice Industry Development, Department of Agriculture