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By PIA Bohol

Posed with the need to increase farmer’s income to cope up with the times, a former top agriculture official asked, are we sticking to palay?

Now able to on to focus financial resource generation for his poverty stricken district, Bohol 3 Representative lawyer Arthur Yap has unwittingly shared a harsh reality he has seen while he was yet a macro manager for the country’s biggest food production machinery: agriculture. 

“A Boholano rice farmer only averages 60 cavans per hectare and earns P50K, unlike Nueva Ecija where farmers can harvest 160 cavans per hectare,” the adopted son of Bohol pointed out. 

For a similar patch of land, a farmer can earn P400 thousand from lettuce and P300 thousand from watermelon, Yap said during the opening program of the Provincial Agri-Technology Fair running from July 20-30 at the New Capitol Complex Grounds. 

“What’s very critical for Bohol and the coming years,”  Yap said, “is how people, especially farmers can support and also benefit from the tourism boom.” 

Homing in on the use of natural and appropriate technology as a guide to sustainable development, Yap stressed that he is still wondering why the province could not compete in average productivity with some other parts of the country. 

We have the soil, the government has already provided irrigation and we do not usually get the strongest typhoons, the former agriculture secretary added. 

“Are we sticking to palay?” Yap asked as he stressed that making up for the food support component of the 500 thousand tourists in Bohol annually can help the farmers get the right market. 

DA Regional director Ricardo Oblena earlier pointed out that in the booming tourism of the province, we need food to feed the tourists. 

Buth while insisting that Bohol should keep the more than a hundred percent rice sufficiency to help keep the country from importing in the next three years, Yap has a different idea. 

“Tourist do not eat much rice anyway,” Yap said as he reminded that Bohol has already attained 113% rice sufficiency.   

Speaking to especially air his commitment to agriculture in Bohol’s third district, Yap also dared the fair organizers to be able to share their research data to investors the representative is bringing to Bohol. 

We have started doing our part, we have brought the investors, but you must point to them which areas and which agricultural products are specifically best for them, he told the gathering of farmer technicians, farmers and exhibitors during the fair opening rites. (rachiu/PIABohol)

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