Posted on January 14, 2019
THE Department of Agriculture (DA) has announced that it wouldfocus more on tree farming nationwide this year as well as dredging of the country’s major rivers to address landslides, flooding and soil erosion, which were causing serious environmental problems to the agri-fisheries sector.
In a statement, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel “Manny” Piñol said, “The shift of focus to these two activities was prompted by the spate of landslides and flooding that has been observed during the last few years.”
Piñol added that even President Rodrigo Duterte, who visited flood-hit Bicol Region last week, blamed the increasing occurrences of landslides and flooding on the “loosening of soil.”
“The President is right. The cutting down of trees and the clearing of mountains to give way to settlements have contributed to the loosening of the soil,” he said.
Yearly damage to agriculture, according to Piñol, is a result of a series of flooding in vast agricultural areas such as the Cagayan Valley, Pampanga and the river basins in Bulacan, Bicol, Agusan and the Rio Grande de Mindanao.
Source: The Manila Times
