DA’s Bantay Peste program takes off in East Visayas
TACLOBAN CITY, Leyte Philippines — In order to ensure greater productivity and food security, the Department of Agriculture Region 8, through its Regional Crop Protection Center, recently initiated the implementation of the Bantay Peste Project in Region 8.
Bantay Peste Project is a fore-warning scheme providing comprehensive information about what is happening in the field and what to do about it especially in cases of pest infestation in crop farms, the report coming from the Regional Assistant Information Officer Jessa Faye Esponilla stated.
“This is our first line of defense against pest infestation,” says DA-8 Regional Executive Director Leo P. Cañeda.
Director Caneda said that consultative meetings have been conducted by the Department of Agriculture together with its LGU-based counterparts, the municipal agriculturists, agricultural technologists and SB chairmen on Agriculture from Leyte, Southern Leyte and Biliran provinces.
Among others, one implementing guideline calls for a Barangay Bantay Peste farmer-cooperator who must be a graduate of an Integrated Pest Management-Farmers Field School (IPM-FFS), a season-long learning process on pest management concepts and methods. He must also own an area that can be developed as a pest observation station. This is to maximize his knowledge in establishing and managing an observation farm.
The Barangay Bantay Peste farmer-cooperator, with the assistance of the municipal Bantay Peste Officer, and in coordination with the provincial and regional Bantay Peste teams, are then expected to collect data at weekly intervals for assessment purposes. This is to determine pest infestation and extent of crop damage so that appropriate solutions can be formulated and immediately disseminated to the farmers in affected areas.
“As much as 10% of the total rice productivity gains can be attributed to proper integrated pest management,” Director Cañeda said.
The good Regional Executive Director cited that the total rice output in 2008 was about 1.02 million metric tons. “From there, we can infer that as much as 100,000 metric tons was due to proper IPM with an estimated economic value of P1 billion. That is how very crucial it is,” he stressed.
It was learned that the Bantay Peste Program will be piloted in Southern Leyte in time for the cropping season which starts this November. (PIA 8 with data from DA 
