THE Department of Agriculture (DA) is batting for the extension of the Agricultural Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (Acef), the review of the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act (Afma) and the Agri-Agra law in the 14th Congress.

Agriculture Secretary Arthur C. Yap said these were among the 28 priority bills that Malacañang wants Congress to approve.

Yap and other producers in the farm sector have been pushing for the extension of the Acef which would expire on December 31 of this year. The DA wants the Acef to be extended until 2015.

Producers such as poultry raisers want the life span of the Acef extended so they can access the funds which have remained highly unused. Estimates place the Acef at more than P5 billion.

The  Acef was established by virtue of Republic Act 8178 as one of the safety-net measures to improve the farm sector’s competitiveness as well as to protect local farm producers from the impact of globalization.

Under the scheme, tariff collections from products covered by the minimum access volume (MAV) are channeled to the Acef. The MAV covers products that member countries of the World Trade Organization (WTO) committed to liberalize.

Yap also said the Afma, or Republic Act 8435, will be up for review in Congress to determine whether the government complied with its provisions.

Under the Afma, the DA was supposed to have been given an allocation of P19 billion a year on top of its usual budget to develop the crops and fisheries sector.

The Agri-Agra law, or Presidential Decree 717, will also be up for review to determine how it can better help farmers avail themselves of credit, especially from commercial banks.

Earlier, Senator Loren Legarda has proposed Senate Bill 38 which sought to allow banks to invest in government securities as a form of alternative compliance under the agri-agra law.

The Agri-Agra law was created in 1975 to enhance the flow of credit to agriculture. It mandates that all banks shall set aside 25 percent of their loanable funds for agricultural credit, of which 10 percent is for the beneficiaries of agrarian reform and 15 percent for agricultural credit.

THE Department of Agriculture (DA) is batting for the extension of the Agricultural Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (Acef), the review of the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act (Afma) and the Agri-Agra law in the 14th Congress.

GOVERNMENT negotiators at the World Trade Organization (WTO) pushed for intensive consultations among local industries, nongovernment organizations and other stakeholders to examine the impact of the draft texts on Agriculture and Non-Agriculture Market Access (Nama) before the Philippines goes back to the WTO negotiating table in September.

SEVERAL government agencies have filed complaints to the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Philippines against the supposed abrupt changes implemented on a number of projects funded by the UNDP.

THE signature products of several Luzon towns and cities are now on exhibit at the SM Megatrade Hall in SM Megamall as the participating micro, small and medium enterprises seek to book orders from local and foreign buyers.

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT—Tourism facilities in the Subic Bay Freeport will soon be required to comply with accreditation standards set by the Department of Tourism (DOT) and the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) to help sell Subic as a premier tourist destination.

DAPITAN CITY, Zamboanga del Norte—The local government and private sector are pooling resources by alloting millions of pesos to make this city the tourism capital of Mindanao, in response to the State of the Nation Address  of President Arroyo where she mentioned Dapitan City and its tourism potentials.

ARE you still using an incandescent light bulb?  Most probably, you still have some bulbs attached to your electrical sockets.