Iloilo to get part of P1.7B El Niño fund
Iloilo Provincial Agriculture Officer (PAO) Dr. Ildefonso Toledo said he is glad and really welcomes the inclusion of the province in the list of highly vulnerable areas to El Niño and, thus, could receive part of the P1.7-billion fund released by Malacañang for the implementation of the drought-mitigating measures.
The funding has been reported released due to the reactivation of the Task Force on El Niño in anticipation of the moderate drought that will hit the country in the coming months.
Toledo said that although there are already some drought-mitigating measures instituted in Iloilo province, the reactivation of the Task Force on El Niño and the funding could greatly help them be able to implement more lined up measures.
He said that Iloilo province, which has a total of 127,000 hectares of rice areas of which 55,000 are irrigated, was blessed in 2009 as it was able to surpass the 2008 total production of 942,000 metric tons.
“Although we are still waiting for the final report from the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics, but then in our counting we have already surpassed the production of 2008,” Toledo contended.
He also said that he is very optimistic the total production would hit their target for 2009 of 1 million metric tons despite the lack of rain already felt last year.
He attributed the good harvest to the high breed seedlings planted by the farmers which had higher yield. Because of this, Toledo said that with the El Niño fund he hopes there would be high breed seedlings to be purchased and other farm inputs such as fertilizers to help the farmers. (PNA)
