Concepcion backs President Marcos decision to stay as DA chief

MANILA, Philippines — Go Negosyo founder Joey Concepcion expressed support for President Marcos’ decision to remain as agriculture secretary until the required structural reforms are instituted to make the sector more efficient and competitive.

“Staying as the lead for agriculture is a smart decision from the President. He can quickly make reforms and ensure that all systems are in place to help the country’s farmers just like what his father did during his term,” Concepcion said in a statement over the weekend.

“Having met the President several times to discuss Go Negosyo’s Kapatid Angat Lahat Agri Program (KALAP), I know that he cares for the farmers, and he is passionate to transform the industry. Given the right time, this will be his legacy,” he added.

Last week, Marcos said he needs to first put in place structural changes in the agency before vacating the post.

“What I aspire is by the time I leave the DA (Department of Agriculture), we will have systems in place so that we can guarantee the food supply of the Philippines, number one; we can guarantee that the prices are affordable and, number three, that our farmers make a good living,” the President said.

“Until we finish that, I suppose you will just have to put up with me as DA secretary,” he added.

Concepcion said he is also highly supportive of the President’s program of encouraging farm clustering as an important component of his administration’s agricultural modernization thrust.

?Farm clustering was among those recommended by Go Negosyo’s KALAP and think tank group Foundation for Economic Freedom (FEF) during their meeting with Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) officials, led by Secretary Conrado Estrella III.

“For the period 2001-2021, the annual average contribution of agriculture to the Gross Domestic Product is just 0.3 percent while industry and the service sectors contributed 1.4 percent 3.1 percent, respectively.  This is not acceptable since the asset base of agriculture in terms of land use is huge compared to that of industry and service,” Concepcion said.

“Philippine agriculture needs scale. We need clustering to achieve it. For this to become a reality, titling of land needs to be cleaned up,” he added.

Through clustering, Concepcion said farming would be attractive to big companies because they only want to lease agriculture lands and not purchase them.

Go Negosyo said farm clustering would also serve as the best complement to the reforms and programs being initiated by Marcos as agriculture secretary to enhance food security, boost the agriculture sector and uplift the lives of farmers.

“It is different if the President himself is at the helm of the agriculture department. Also, he has good people implementing his vision for the country, like Agrarian Reform Secretary Estrella and other government agencies,” Concepcion said.

“KALAP and the private sector, composed of big brothers in the agri sector, including Fermin Adriano of FEF, are always here to offer our expertise to help the President attain his vision,” he added.

Through farm clustering, it would be easier for the government to provide assistance to farmers, such as loans and farm machinery, because it would deal with groups rather than individual tillers, FEF representative Fermin Adriano explained during the meeting with DAR.

“The process will pave way for the use of modern farm machinery and technologies, thereby achieving economies of scale, and allow the development of downstream industries, such as food processing, due to adequate and reliable supply of raw materials,” Concepcion said.

Other countries that have implemented farm clustering – such as China, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia – all enjoyed higher yields.