The Davao City Agriculturist’s Office (CAGRO) is pushing to expand rice and corn production areas here to attain food sufficiency and help farmers cope with plant diseases.

CAGRO chief Edgardo Haspe said their programs and projects geared towards food production are boosted as the national government warned of a looming food deficit.

“The national government is anticipating a deficit in the food supply in the next two quarters. The challenge for us is on how to increase the production of rice and corn,” Haspe said in a statement Friday.

To address this, he said CAGRO will expand the city’s rice areas in the highlands to boost production.

He said this will benefit banana farmers who were hit by the fusarium wilt disease in recent years have opted to shift to corn due to its high market price and cost-efficient production.

“Corn production here is promising due to the significant number of farmers who shifted to corn farming,” he said.

Haspe noted that their budget allocation for food production programs will be augmented to improve the city’s food sufficiency and help residents brace for the looming food crisis and reduce the city’s dependency on importations.

“Staple food, such as corn and rice, will be at the center of CAGRO’s boosted food production efforts,” he said.

Aside from rice and corn, Haspe said they are also engaged in other agriculture programs such as the quarterly distribution of fish fingerlings in the highlands as well as dispersal of seeds and seedlings.

Since April this year, he said they also distributed more than 1,000 sacks of fertilizer assistance to vegetable farmers. (PNA)