ILOILO CITY – The primary challenge confronting the Department of Agriculture (DA) in Western Visayas is enhancing agricultural production, not land conversion, according to DA Regional Executive Director Dennis Arpia.
Despite ongoing land development, such as building construction, housing, and subdivision projects, which pose a threat to food security, the DA’s primary concern remains the low agricultural productivity in the region, not the land conversion itself.
“Even with the conversion of vast tracts of agricultural land to residential use across the country, Western Visayas continues to have one of the lowest production rates per hectare, averaging only 3.4 metric tons, which is below the national average of four metric tons,” Arpia reported.
The DA regional official emphasized that the real challenge lies in increasing productivity levels rather than worrying about land conversion. He noted that the decline in production is not due to farmers’ negligence, but is largely attributed to climatic conditions.
To combat this, Arpia advocates for the adoption of new agricultural technologies and hybrid seeds, which could significantly boost production per hectare. “If our farmers can increase their production, they can recover their costs and achieve substantial profits,” he added.
The DA continues to promote various methods to address farmers’ challenges and aims to mitigate the impact of adverse climatic conditions, such as the El Niño phenomenon.
The agency has set a target for the current cropping season to utilize hybrid seeds across 60,000 hectares of agricultural lands to recover from previous losses caused by El Niño.
Despite the region having 300,000 hectares of available farmland during the rainy season, not all areas receive adequate rainfall, highlighting the need for effective agricultural strategies and technologies to ensure consistent production levels.
