Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 9) — President Rodrigo Duterte has approved a ₱523-million program of the Department of Agriculture that is designed to increase crop productivity and farmers’ earnings by rejuvenating the country’s soils.
The DA made the announcement on Wednesday, saying the National Soil Health Program will be implemented from 2021 to 2023.
“With the NSHP, we now have a science-based framework to rejuvenate our sick soils that will subsequently lead to increased crop harvests and farmers’ incomes,” Agriculture Secretary William Dar said.
Under the project, the government said it will adopt a national soil database and monitoring system, as well as enhance the capacities of soil laboratories nationwide by upgrading facilities and hiring highly-trained technical staff.
It also intends to acquire modern mobile laboratory units that would benefit farms located far from established provincial and regional laboratories.
“With these modern soil laboratories, farmers would have their soil samples analyzed in a matter of minutes, with the corresponding specific site and crop nutrient recommendations,” Dar said.
The department added it will hold trainings for local government extension workers, farmer leaders, and other stakeholders on the different soil properties.
The DA said the NSHP was patterned after India’s own successful soil rejuvenation project called “Bhoochetana,” which was implemented in 2009 to 2012. It said through this, farmers were able to increase their crop yields by 23-66% and raise the economic returns for their investment.
