The Department of Agriculture (DA), headed by President Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos Jr. in a concurrent capacity, is looking into the possibility of implementing the “Masagana 150” program which aims to harvest 150 cavans of rice per hectare of land.

A similar program, dubbed “Masagana 99” was implemented under the administration of then President Ferdinand E. Marcos in 1973. It sought to solve the country’s then-worsening rice shortage. The said program was discontinued after being marred with issues, leaving farmers in deeper debt.

In an interview with ANC on Thursday, July 21, Agriculture Undersecretary-designate for consumer and political affairs Kristine Evangelista said they are currently studying the implementation of the “Masagana 150” in the country.

She said the program was a recommendation of the agriculture department, adding that it was the ones heading the rice program who came up with it.

“They are putting in technology and new things to increase the yield. This is anchored on increasing the yield based on the technologies we can avail of, we have... It’s science-based the idea is to reach that much as far as cavans is concerned,” Evangelista said, pertaining to the “Masagana 150” program.

“We are looking how this can be implemented and when can it be implemented,” she added.

By increasing the yield of rice, Evangelista said it will lead to the drop in prices and an increase in income among farmers.

“We plant in October, we harvest it next year. To manage expectation, it’s not going to be harvested this year,” she said.

“But definitely if Masagana 150 will be implemented, we are looking at it as a way of bringing down the price of rice in our market, and at the same time helping our farmers come up with better yield, that increasing their income as well.”

The success and failure of Masagana 99

In webinar attended by some members of the UP College of Agriculture Class 1960, it was discussed that the Masagana 99 was an emergency program to address rice shortage due to pests and natural calamities that hit the country before.

Those who attended the webinar in September 2020 were mostly part of the Masagana 99.

In the article posted at the UP Los Baños website, one of the panelists, Dr. Santiago Obien, said the program was successful in producing the needed rice production in averting potential social problems before.

But the project had its own problems and some of them, according to former DA Sec. Domingo Panganiban, were the replacement of technicians with non-agriculturists and that the implementers forgot about the small farmers.

In the same article, has other problems and issues that include problematic credit system, use of pesticides that were damaging to the environment, and loss of properly-trained personnel.

It added that these are important lessons that should be taken into account for future programs.

Cooperatives

When it comes to the program's sustainability, she said the ACPC or the Agriculture Credit Policy Council can assist cooperatives by granting loans.

The President recently mulled government-to-government (G2G) deals in a bid to address the increasing prices of fertilizers in the country.

The government is planning to communicate with China, Indonesia, United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, and Russia for the country’s procurement of fertilizers.

Marcos has also ordered officials of the agriculture department to come up with a farm-to-market road master plan that will serve as a guide for the government.