Agriculture eyes cassava self-sufficiency program

The Agriculture Department is embarking on five-year program to attain 100 percent self-sufficiency on cassava production to supply the requirements of the food and feed milling industries as well as the country’s bio-fuel need. Agriculture Assistant Secretary Dennis Araullo said the government aimed to increase production by doubling the hectarage to 500,000 hectares. The wider coverage will effectively increase output from 1.941 million metric tons in 2008 to 10.477 million MT by 2014. Cassava, which can substitute as much as 20 percent of corn in feeds, is also used for bio-ethanol production and human consumption. Araullo said attaining cassava self-sufficiency would help feed millers in times of tight corn supply and possibly avoid emergency importation of corn and feed wheat. Araullo said the government had propagated high-yielding cassava varieties like in 53 hectares last year. “These high-yielding varieties will help increase the national yield average to 21 MT per hectare in five years from the current 9 MT per hectare,” said Araullo. The department last year signed a P3-million deal with Visayas State University-based PhilRootscrops to produce 5.6-million cassava seedlings a year. (June 18, 2009)