SCIENCE CITY OF MU\u00d1OZ\u2014The incoming secretary of agriculture plans to tap one of the oldest gadgets in the world to introduce the newest technologies that could help Filipino farmers improve their yield\u2014radio sets.<\/p>\n
Emmanuel Pi\u00f1ol, named agriculture secretary by President-elect Rodrigo Duterte, said he might revive a radio program, called \u201cFarmers\u2019 School on Air,\u201d to spread news about new farming technologies where they would be useful\u2014in the country\u2019s farms.<\/p>\n
Pi\u00f1ol made the statement after conferring with officials of the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), the Philippine Center for Postharvest and Mechanization (PhilMech), the Philippine Carabao Center (PCC) and the Small Ruminant Center in the science community here.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are many advancements in agricultural technology but they are not trickling down to the farmers,\u201d said Pi\u00f1ol.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is because technology transfer is not given much impetus,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said he would ask radio stations nationwide to air the farming information program every morning.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be an interactive program as the farmers can refer their problems and the agencies concerned will answer them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Pi\u00f1ol said technology could help bail out agriculture and the farmers \u201cfrom their lamentable situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOur agriculture is down with a negative 0.4 percent growth performance. Our farmers, who are saddled with debts because of the prolonged El Ni\u00f1o [dry spell] and the powerful typhoons before it, are having a hard time to recover,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
His visit here was part of his \u201cbiyaheng bukid\u201d (farm visits) \u201cto feel and see for myself the situation on the ground before assuming my post.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Pi\u00f1ol, there was \u201cmuch poverty in the farming and fisheries sectors.\u201d<\/p>\n
One key policy that would be adopted when Duterte assumes office in July was the scrapping of irrigation service fees, he said.<\/p>\n
Pi\u00f1ol said he had already discussed this with officials of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA).<\/p>\n
He said he was finalizing an agriculture road map which would include new areas for production.<\/p>\n
He said the plan included the planting of 600,000 coconut trees, inter-cropped with cacao and coffee, and high value crops in rice farming areas that might be supported by shallow well pumps.<\/p>\n
\u201cFood production should not simply be for production of agricultural products but also for poverty alleviation. The approach is family-based to help bring up the farmers\u2019 families beyond the poverty threshold level,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The incoming secretary of agriculture plans to tap one of the oldest gadgets in the world to introduce the newest technologies that could help Filipino farmers improve their yield\u2014radio sets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":930,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,39],"tags":[137,2294,57501],"byline":[4832],"source":[139],"column":[],"editor":[],"videographer":[],"position":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n