DA moves to identify lands good for sorghum farming

Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said the Department of Agriculture (DA) will initially introduce sorghum, a grass species which produces high protein grains both for human food and poultry and livestock feeds, in the vast tribal ancestral domains and the rain-fed rice areas.

Sorghum was identified as an ideal complementary crop to corn as raw materials for feed manufacturing.

With over two million hectares of rain-fed rice areas and almost five million hectares of tribal ancestral domains all over the country, the prospects of achieving enough supply of raw materials for livestock and poultry feeds are bright, Piñol said.

He then explained the new thrust to develop another grains crop resulted from consultations with livestock and poultry stakeholders who complained that the high cost of feeds was hurting the industry.

Feed millers said, as cited by Piñol, that the limited supply of yellow corn has pushed prices up to about P22 per kilo from a low P8 to P10 years ago.

Leaders of the tribal communities and farmers groups in upland and rain-fed areas will soon be invited by the Department of Agriculture to a one-day lecture and planting demonstration before the new crop will be introduced to their areas.

“By focusing the production of sorghum in ancestral domains and rain-fed areas where farmers only produce once a year, the DA will also be able to address poverty,” Piñol further said.

Special Area for Agricultural Development (SAAD) Director Bernadette San Juan and the Indigenous People’s 4Ks Project under National Coordinator Camilo Andi Jr. have been tasked to handle the initial implementation of the Sorghum Development Program.

SOURCE: MANILA BULLETIN

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