 I'd like to greet everyone a good day, and I'd like to thank the International Rice Research Institute for inviting me as one of the reactors on the Rice Straw Philippine project. I would like to thank IRI for taking into consideration the Sagi Saka app which aims to increase the income of small older farmers and encouraging them to pursue entrepreneurship and enterprise development as a means of moving out of subsistence farming. This pandemic has proven the resilience of Philippine agriculture and the importance of food security especially during the crisis. When Filipinos flock to grocery stores and supermarkets in the urban centers and they're trusted the wet markets to stock up before the start of the lockdown, last March one of the greatest concerns in anxiety is that where to get our food. That's why it costs such an outrage when there were pictures on social media showing vegetables being thrown away because farmers could not access the markets. A lot of people want their food especially fresh and nutritious but due to quarantine restrictions they have limited means of accessing them. The response of some Filipinos in turn was to do urban gardening. Growing one's own food has become popular in the past six months and there have been a big clamor for seeds. Suddenly food farming access to health food and the ability to be able to secure our food became front and center. Local government units are also have also responded to the challenge of providing food aid for their constituents through direct purchasing of agricultural products from farmers and agriculture cooperatives. That's the spirit of Sagepsata. It was hitting two birds with one stone. The LGUs were able to access sources of rice vegetables and other products immediately and farmers were able to access the markets and earn despite the pandemic cutting them away from most of their markets. In fact the DA reported that for the first time in history over 400 local governments were able to purchase some six billion worth of agri and fishery products directly from farmers and farmers cooperatives and associations. The LGUs also purchased rice in winning with better prices. Usually middlemen would purchase rice at 13 to 17 pesos per kilo during the pandemic but the LGUs priced it as much as 19 pesos increasing the income of farmers during the pandemic. Imagine if we even had if we were able to add even more value to rice farming for example through the utilization of wastage from harvests such as rice straws. We load this effort. This is money being burned for lack of a better term and thrown away unless we are able to have the technology to use it. If farmers could pursue farm enterprise focusing on value-adding, multi-cropping, why not? Through the prompt response of LGUs in the DA we were able to ensure that farmers would have continued incomes despite the pandemic. I am told that an additional gross of 250,000 to 750,000 from growing mushrooms for example using rice straws would be a big help in lifting our farmers from poverty. A March 2020 article from the NOMPEN post says that the Mekong Delta rice farmers are earning as much as 63 pesos per kilo of rice straw. That's even bigger, more expensive than rice itself or the cost per kilo is even higher than the rice itself. Their income averages from 1400 to 1900 pesos from rice straws per hectare. Farmers also cultivate rice straw mushrooms and earn as much as 63,000 to 83,000 pesos per 1000 square meters per month of mushroom crop. Remember that even palla in the Philippines is only worth 17 to 19 pesos per kilo. Most don't even make use of rice straws and just resort to burning what would have been 63 pesos per kilo additional income. If Vietnam can do it or Cambodia we certainly can too. We have to make the most agriculture in the sense that nothing of value should go to waste. Burning of rice straws has always been a prevalent scene in the Philippine countryside. It is a distinctive smell that you can sniff kilometers away. But it is time to learn these practices by burn rice straws when you could have when you can profit from it. We support IRI and the D encouraging sustainable straw management in the Philippines and ensuring that our farmers are provided with even more options for increased incomes. Our office is open to any legislative measure that should support this in depth and you have our full commitment that we will pursue this Senate floor. Again congratulations and thank you for this invitation. May we have more income for our rice farmers for our agriculture sector by utilizing what today is waste and turn it into added income for our farmers. Thank you very much.