President Marcos Jr. on Wednesday ordered the geo-mapping of all agricultural lands in the country to determine which soils are best suited for certain crops in a bid to boost agriculture production and raise farmers’ income.
The President, during a meeting with the Philippine Rice Industry Stakeholders Movement (PRISM) in Malacañang on Wednesday, said the government currently uses geo-mapping to address the irrigation and titling issues concerning agricultural lands with the help of the maps that are used by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority .
“We are putting together everything because it would be difficult to survey them all. So, we would know all the areas),” he said.
Geo-mapping, according to website Trenchlesspedia, is the “process of converting raw data from surveys into a geo-map that helps provide a visualization of the location of utilities quickly and accurately.”
At the PRISM Forum, founder and lead convenor Rowena Sadicon identified nine challenges faced by the rice sector: high cost of rice production and limited market access, limited access to capital investment, adverse BIR policies, lack of extensive irrigation system and climate crisis-El Niño threat, slow adoption of vital rice production technology, lack of access to real-time data, misaligned programs and activities across agri-related government agencies, inconsistent consultative meetings among the various rice stakeholders, and rice smuggling.
The President shared government initiatives to address these concerns such as the establishment of more farmer cooperatives or associations and the provision of training and other assistances through rice production technology, among others.
Marcos said the government is also preparing for the impending El Niño by improving the irrigation system, among others.
Government is also developing the five-year plan to make the country at least 97.4 percent rice self-sufficient.
It is also developing a digital application that will provide access to real-time data and other information necessary for agricultural production.
The administration is also formulating the National Agricultural and Fisheries Modernization and Industrialization Plan in consultation with other stakeholders.
This plan will serve as a guide in the development of the agriculture and fisheries sectors. It will harness information technology in gathering, analyzing and using data for food production such as the Smarter Approaches to Reinvigorate Agriculture as an Industry in the Philippines; and recalibrating the importation schedule to protect local farmers and industries.
Other initiatives include: review of the requirements of the proposed pre-shipment inspection system by the Department of Finance and the Department of Agriculture (DA); review of the Rice Tariffication Law and its implementing rules and regulations; the Farm and Fisheries Consolidation and Clustering program; credit and financing through the DA and the Land Bank of the Philippines, and the establishment of climate-smart agriculture infrastructure.
