The multi-million peso mechanized seedling nursery of the Department of Environment & Natural Resources situated in Barangay Banban, Ayungon town in Negros Oriental has hit a snag.
Charlie Fabre, chief of the Provincial Environment & Natural Resources Office disclosed Wednesday that while the state-of-the-art machine had already arrived, it could not be operated in the absence of the seedling tray.
Fabre explained the bidding for the seedling tray was conducted separately and until now there seems to be a failure in the bidding process.
The seedling tray holds the soil and the seeds that would be grown into seedlings for planting at specific areas identified for reforestation under the National Greening Program.
Negros Oriental is one of the five areas in the entire Philippines to be named as recipient of the mechanized seedling nursery facility after having exceeded its targeted number of seedlings to be planted over the past years.
Meanwhile, an initial 10,000 seedling trays or equivalent to 10 million seedlings was procured by the DENR Central Office for the National Greening Program, Fabre said.
One seedling tray can hold 100 seedlings although the DENR Central Office has not made any deliveries yet, according to Fabre.
Fabre said priority will be given to Mindanao areas although some 1.2 million seedlings or 1,200 seedling trays are allocated for Negros Oriental.
This is supposedly for the 2015 target but will have to be implemented in 2016, he added.
The mechanized seedling nursery in Ayungon is projected to produce 30 to 40 million seedlings in one production alone, Fabre said.
The Banban mechanized seedling nursery facility targets to produce between 15 million to 20 million seedlings, he added. (PNA)
