(YEARENDER) Pangasinan to remain as PHL food basket

• Source: http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?nid=2&rid=949947
• Wednesday, December 21, 2016

By Leonardo V. Micua [(PNA), LAP/LVM/LVMICUA/RMA]

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan, Dec. 21 (PNA) -- Like his father before him, a son also shines and is now making a difference in Pangasinan, a province which is among the biggest in the whole country with a population of roughly three million people.

The youthful Governor Amado "Pogi" Espino III now leads a province comprising of 44 towns and three cities, with the exception of Dagupan which is the lone independent component city in Pangasinan and Region 1.

A graduate in business administration, major in agri-business, the young Espino catapulted into the governorship not only because of the influence of his illustrious father, former Gov. Amado T. Espino Jr., now congressman of the fifth district of Pangasinan, but also because of his own credentials as a public servant.

He had been in public service for 27 years as councilor, vice mayor and mayor in his hometown of Bautista and as ex-officio provincial member who headed the Federation of Barangay Councils of Pangasinan.

A farmer himself, he is bent on making Pangasinan self-sufficient in food and agri-products so that it will no longer import its food needs from other provinces and from abroad.

As one who utilizes his knowledge in agri-business to the fullest, he wants Pangasinan to keep up with its role as the food basket in the whole country if not in the whole of east Asia.

With Pangasinan now looming to become industrialized, the need for intensified food production is paramount.

One says that if one is in the province of Pangasinan, he and his family will never go hungry because food is plentiful in the farms, rivers and the sea as long as one combines his good traits as a Pangasinense with the values of industry and sacrifice.

Today, Pangasinan is the third biggest rice-producing province in the country, trailing Nueva Ecija and Isabela in terms of yearly rice production.

But given a few more years and also blessed with good weather, it has the capability to wind up on top of the field in rice production alone.

In many photo ops, the younger Espino and co-workers at the capitol always gesture the number one sign in their right hand finger, which means they are not contented with number three or two but number one.

Pangasinan today is the fourth-ranking province throughout the country, from being almost at the bottom when the elder Espino became governor in 2007.

Though with passion for farming, the Espino father and son always encourage their fellow farmers to do everything they can to send their children to school for these young ones to graduate as professionals in many other fields

This is because their farm, which does not expand in size anyway, cannot accommodate all their offspring at the same time and must have to excel in other crafts in order to survive. .

For his part, the younger Espino sustained the program of the elder Espino giving farm inputs like rice seeds and fertilizers to farmers at 50 percent subsidy from the Pangasinan provincial government, the only province doing this so far in partnership with the Department of Agriculture.

As a young entrepreneur whose heart beats for his province's farmers, he vowed not to rest on his laurels till Pangasinan becomes number one in rice production through the introduction of modern farm technologies, use of hybrid rice seeds and organic farming.

Pangasinan is currently the top producer of corn and consistently recognized by the Department of Agriculture as top quality corn achiever for the last two years.

Its farmers also plant vegetables, like eggplant, ampalaya, okra, sweet tomatoes, squash -- all components of the Ilocano favorite dish "pinakbet."

The province under the young Espino and even under his father was also the leading producer of livestock and poultry, some if not many of these are transported to other Ilocos provinces and Metro Manila.

Espino and his father rekindled the spirit of bayanihan in the rural areas through the organization of multi-purpose cooperatives and neighborhood associations, all of which were guaranteed production loans by the provincial government with the money drawn from its coffers.

The province under the elder Espino committed funds to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas for lending to entrepreneurs of small and medium-sized industries wanting to expand their business.

In recognition of its great strides in agriculture, the Pangasinan's agri-team under Provincial Agriculture Officer Dalisay Moya was recently awarded by the Civil Service Commission (CSC) for having tirelessly propelled increased rice production in the province, an accolade never attained by other top rice producing provinces.

The province remains as the number one producer of milkfish supplying the daily needs of Metro Manila. It is also sufficient in other aquatic products like tilapia, prawns, p. vannamae (white shrimps) and the like.

Pangasinan's fish production is complemented by mangrove planting and is the only province today maintaining a mangrove nursery.