MARCOS ORDERS GEOMAPPING OF AGRI LANDS

PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has ordered the geomapping of all agricultural lands in the country to boost production.

Geomapping is the process of converting gathered data into a geological map of a particular location of utilities.

Marcos issued the directive during a meeting with the Philippine Rice Industry Stakeholders Movement (Prism) in Malacañang on Wednesday.

Prism raised several concerns to the President including high cost of production, limited market access, limited access to capital investment, adverse Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) policies, lack of extensive irrigation system, the El Niño threat and slow adoption of vital production technologies.

"We are putting together everything because it is difficult to survey everything. So it is for us to determine the areas and it started with irrigation, with the NIA (National Irrigation Administration)," Marcos said.

Marcos added that the government has already been using geomapping in resolving titling issues to boost agricultural production with the BIR and National Mapping and Resource Information Authority as lead agencies.

"So from that, the titling problem that we are talking about would be easier to resolve. But at least we could define the parcels of land and in that way, we would know. If we are able to solve the titling problem, everything else will be easier," the President said.

Clustering, low soil fertility, mill modernization and improved milling process were the other issues discussed during the meeting.

Founded in 2019, Prism is composed of multisectoral groups whose mission is to protect the interests of rice industry stakeholders.

2023-06-01T16:46:43Z dg43tfdfdgfd