Department of Agriculture (DA) Region IV-CALABARZON, together with the Bureau of Plant Industry-National Seed Quality Control Services (BPI-NSQCS) and the Philippine Rice Research institute (PhilRice) Los Baños, met with CALABARZON seed growers to conduct a consultative meeting geared towards higher crop yields for the coming 2021 dry and wet seasons, held at Southern Tagalog Integrated Agricultural Research Center, Brgy. Maraouy, Lipa City, Batangas on September 25, 2020.

Regional Director Arnel V. de Mesa briefly addressed the meeting by announcing that the regional office, through its Rice Resiliency Project, will devote a full grant to the distribution of fertilizers for rice farmers during the coming dry season.

“The procurement process for interventions during this dry-season cropping is currently under discussion with the central office. As we target for an additional seven-percent increase in rice productivity in the region, we look forward to your continued support and cooperation. Personally, I believe that timing is everything when it comes to delivering intervention so that no more seeds or fertilizers can be disposed of, which is why we need your help in setting accurate targets so that we can make full use of these government interventions,” Director de Mesa said.

Assistant Regional Director (ARD) for Operations and Regional Rice Program Coordinator Mr. Dennis R. Arpia said he had high expectations that this consultative meeting would be productive. He pointed out that the regional office and the CALABARZON seed growers should be united in their advocacy to produce higher yields of rice during the 2021 cropping season.

“The regional office relies heavily on your reports. That’s why we’re hoping for earlier projections so that we can immediately identify what action or intervention we’re going to take. We have our eyes and ears open to your suggestions so that together we can move forward,” ARD Arpia said.

Several topics discussed during the meeting include the seed requirement of CALABARZON for the dry season 2020 and the wet and dry season 2021–2022 target; the presentation of the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Program targets for the distribution of certified seeds for the dry season 2021–2022, the target allocation of registered seeds for the dry season 2021, and the availability of foundation seeds under PhilRice; and updates on the availability of registered and certified seeds to be harvested by seed growers this wet season 2020 with harvest and certification timelines, as well as updates on BPI-NSQCS seed certification care.

Later in the day, seed growers were grouped for a workshop according to their respective provinces, where they mapped their 2020 wet-season seed production targets, as well as their 2021 dry and wet season planting action plan. After consolidation of outputs, each group presented their wet-season cropping data for 2020 and the planting areas projected for the 2020–2021 dry season. (MAP, DA-RAFIS)