Marcos urged to layout agricultural plan during SONA

MANILA, Philippines — Agricultural groups hope President Marcos will lay out his overall plan on boosting production and improving productivity in the sector during his First State of the Nation Address.

A sector besieged by a deluge of imported commodities, stakeholders have been pushing the government to focus on local production instead of supporting importation.

Farmers said Marcos would be put to the test as president and agriculture secretary as his administration is faced with the colossal task of resolving the worsening economic crisis.

While the President already declared that he favors domestic production over importation, agricultural groups are calling for definite plans on how this will be achieved.

“Of course, the major item is to focus on domestic production versus importation,” Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food Inc. (PCAFI) president Danilo Fausto said in a text message.

In another text message, Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) national manager Raul Montemayor said their group is hoping the President would address the three most urgent issues now, which are “high fertilizer prices, high fuel costs, and low prices for farmers due to excessive imports and smuggling.”

“Then he can lay out his overall plan for boosting production, improving productivity, while ensuring the profitability of farmers, and in the process, ensuring food security, availability and affordability for the consuming public,” he said.

Agricultural groups are also expecting the President to talk about a higher budget and the reorganization of the Department of Agriculture (DA).

“A commitment to significantly increase the budget for agriculture would also be important,” Montemayor said.

For PCAFI, the group hopes the Marcos administration will streamline and capacitate DA for faster downloading of support services to the farmers.

It proposed to employ agriculture technicians in the barangay level, with at least “one technician for every 10 agriculture and fisheries’ barangays.”

Stakeholders also anticipate President Marcos to talk about his legislative agenda, particularly on the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL), which has been highly opposed by farmer groups.

“We hope he will also talk about policy and legislative initiatives, such as the amendment of the RTL, passage of a National Land Use Act, and the creation of the Department of Fisheries,” Montemayor said.

The President, who concurrently sits as Agriculture Secretary, had directed the DA to come out with recommendations on the law’s pros and cons and whether it should be ratified.

The previous administration cited the RTL as a landmark law and one of the game-changing reforms that benefitted millions of Filipinos.

However, farmers have repeatedly called for the suspension or review of the RTL, which opened the floodgates for cheap rice imports.

Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) chairperson emeritus and former agrarian reform secretary Rafael Mariano said they would continue to pursue and challenge Marcos on the peasant sector’s 12-point doable for the new administration’s first 100 days.

Among these doables include a ban on conversion of agricultural lands, the grant of a P15,000 production subsidy for farmers and fishers, and the repeal of the RTL among others.

Marcos’ top marching order to the DA is to increase the production of rice, corn, vegetables, poultry and pork.

However, Mariano said the DA is missing the most important issues as it focuses only on catchphrases like “improving the value chain,” “food mobilization,” “catch-up strategies” and the like.