Alaminos City (12 May) -- Giving flesh to its vision for better and massive food production to benefit its constituents and hedge them from any rice crisis, the city government here will launch on Tuesday its full subsidy program for rice seeds for 2008.

The move will fully put in place the same seed production program that actually started last year on pilot basis when some 3,400 bags of certified palay seeds were distributed to 2,127 farmer-beneficiaries, according to the City Agriculture Office (CAO).

Mayor Hernani Braganza said this month of May after the city fiesta till September -- when the city celebrates the Hundred Islands turnover anniversary – the local government will be concentrating on its agricultural thrusts.

Tuesday's launch of the full rice seeds subsidy program will usher in this intensified agricultural program of Alaminos.

On hand will be top officials of the Department of Agriculture and allied offices and companies involved in the program.

An official of the city agriculture office said this time around some 4,437 bags of seeds will benefit pre-identified 4, 437 farmers under the set policy of one bag per each hectare tilled by a farmer-beneficiary.

The rice seeds costs some P1,200 per bag, the CAO said. The seeds will come from local seed growers who produced 3, 172 bags and from the DA which contributed 1,265 bags for the launching of the program.

"It will be a 100% subsidized rice seed distribution for our farmers in all barangays," City Administrator Wilmer S. Panabang declared last Friday in an interview by the Philippine Information Agency, adding that the funding for it will be on a "counterparting scheme" with the Department of Agriculture.

Panabang said the DA helped train city technicians since last year on the production of the certified seeds in order that the city can be fully able to produce the seeds without depending on private seed suppliers.

The city administrator said Mayor Braganza is optimistic the city and its constituents will have enough local rice supply well into the so-called lean months "even till December."

"Magkakaabutan (Will overlap), Panabang described the bountiful harvest in each cropping season that is expected as a result of the city government's rice production program. (PIA-Pangasinan)