Agriculture Undersecretary Bernie Fondevilla hinted that vegetable cultivation could be a lucrative endeavor for farmers who might be affected by the protracted dry spell called El Nino.

“Our country’s consumption of vegetables is still very low,” Fondevilla told reporters covering President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s visit here to a major tourist site, adding there is much room for expansion.

Emerging from a Cabinet meeting being held at a beach resort in Barangay Sabang in this city, Fondevilla said “there is enough room for expansion for farmers likely to be hit by the drought.”

President Arroyo presided at the Cabinet meeting after touring the world-renowned St. Paul Subterranean River National Park on a canoe, escorted by local government officials and Palawan-based journalists. The meeting tackled the Arroyo administration’s economic and anti-poverty policies.

The DA official disclosed that the government, for its part, has mapped out a contingency plan that includes subsidies to the farmers in terms of seeds and other farming inputs.

As early as July last year, Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap directed all DA officials in charge of various commodities like palay and corn to draw up their respective contingency plans in preparation for El Niño.

The order was given to the heads of the different Ginintuang Masaganang Ani (GMA) programs.

The heads of the various commodity groups were instructed to craft their respective contingency plans designed to mitigate the adverse impact of El Nino on the farmers.

The DA official also said his department would streamline its budget program to ensure that a lion’s share of DA funds go to funding programs meant for the country to attain food security and sufficiency in the medium term despite challenges such as climate change and globalize trade.

SOURCE: gov.ph