Yap to tackle rice problem

When Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap arrives here Wednesday, he is supposed to address, among others, the proposal of the sugar farmers to help the National Food Authority distribute NFA rice to their farm workers. And, of course, also the mill workers.

If there are sugar planters willing to do that, it provides the NFA an institutional framework to work with. They do not need anymore to deploy their own trucks to ferry the rice to the farms. The planters will do that for the government.

I am sure that Sec. Yap, from what I know of him, will be amenable to the proposal, subject to certain conditions.

That also relieves the NFA the problem of issuing to barangay leaders access cards that will allow rural residents a chance to buy NFA rice by as much as two kilograms. And that also relieve the farm workers of the need to trudge several kilometers to be able to buy only such a small amount of rice.

What we actually have is a price crisis. The cost of commercial rice has swung up abruptly. And it is very easy to pinpoint some of the causes for this.

One is, of course, the higher production cost. And the lack of irrigation, as well as the cost of needed inputs and the proper technology of rice cultivation.

In fairness to our provincial agriculturist Igmedio Tabianan, our rice farmers had been introduced to the certified seeds of palay as well as to hybrid rice. And many rice farmers had undergone training in rice farming, according to the latest trends.

These have boosted the provincial production level. It has succeeded in narrowing the gap from 50 to only 20 percent. That’s a major achievement, one can see.

If the Bago River Irrigation project had just been completed after all the years under the National Irrigation Administration, the provincial rice granary could have attained self-sufficiency. But the problem is, until now, it seems that NIA has come up with only excuses on the delayed repair and rehabilitation of the irrigation project which had originally been supposed to service 16,000 hectares.

I am sure that Secretary Yap will give the go-signal for the immediate implementation of mini-dams in various parts of the province. These had been the dream of the late Governor Joseph Marañon. Had these been realized as desired, our rice problem could have been considerably eased.

Welcome, Secretary Yap. Negros Occidental needs your reachout badly.

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I could appreciate the reason why Sugar Administrator Lito Coscolluela suggested to the Anti-Bahay Collation to either file a suit or initiate a recall of City Mayor Evelio Leonardia.

When city officials failed to provide answers to the many questions from the coalition members, the victim of Sta. Clara floods must have lost his cool.

In short, enough of just presenting questions, instead when you have enough proof to sue the city government for its alleged failure to address the various facets of the flood problems of Bacolod, then go ahead and sue the city mayor and other officials involved.

That, I think stems from the simple fact that the city government still has to come up with the Master Plan for the Development of Bacolod.

I still have to hear of the City Planning Development Council asked to meet and craft the master plan for Bacolod! Instead, what we have seen are piecemeal approaches to specific problems that do not add to much since there is no systematic outline of what the city government intends to attain.

While our traffic managers have been cracking their brains trying to address the city’s traffic problems, nobody seems to have addressed the problems of city streets and how to repair the destroyed and damaged ones.

And there are plenty of these. For example, the attended constructed by the BREDCO, which had been donated to the city government, remain in a shambles. The streets around the SM Mall. And the streets leading to the area. They are deplorable. And nobody seems to pay attention to them. Imagine the amount of money that could have accrued to the city had these been properly attended to and the traffic problem there addressed.

All over, one sees the mushrooming of “hayob hayobs” or improvised stores. Even in front of that giant construction along Shopping Center. Narra Avenue is clogged by these stores. And nobody seems to mind the fact that these are supposed to be ejected from there. Otherwise, the commercial building will later go to pot.*

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