DA suspends "Quick Turn Around" program
Tuguegarao City (3 October) -- "No planting until October".
This was the order issued by the Department of Agriculture (DA) during a recently held meeting with the officers of the different Irrigators Association of region 2.
This order applies to farmers who planted under the "Singit Crop" or "Quick Turn Around Program", to avoid heavy losses due to the widespread Rice Tungro Virus in ricefields regionwide.
The Quick Turn Around Program which started last April was permitted by NIA and DA earlier to enable farmers to harvest for three cropping seasons this year. It was aimed to replenish the would be harvest that were damaged by several typhoons and floods that hit Cagayan Valley.
However, Manager Vicente Galvez of NIA R02 said that DA and NIA decided to temporarily suspend the implementation of the program due to the attack of Tungro Virus that caused damage to some 28,000 has. of ricefields in Region 02.
The temporary suspension of planting at this time will break the cycle of the plant disease. The absence of newly planted palay and budding crops that serves as a favorite source of food for the green and zigzag leafhoppers, identified as the fastest medium for the transfer of tungro virus. This will reduce the population of the insects and hopefully to stop the disease affecting the ricefields, he explained.
DA likewise advice farmers to uproot immediately palays suspected to have the tungro virus and burry the infected plants in the mud. In case heavy afflictions occur, it is recommended that the farmer should plow the area to avoid contamination to other ricefields, Galvez said. (PIA-Cagayan) [top]
