To address the perennial problems hounding the Philippine farm sector, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol said on Wednesday he will push for a 10-year legislated road map to ensure the country’s food security.
Piñol said legislating the food-security program will ensure its continuity even after President Duterte has stepped down from office.
“I told the President that his administration must lay the foundation of a strong agriculture sector,” he said in his speech at the celebration of the 87th anniversary of the Bureau of Plant Industry in Manila.
“Right now, the Department of Agriculture [DA] is proposing a plan that would establish a 10-year security program, which would be enacted and would not be abandoned by any president until it is completed,” Piñol added.
The DA chief said the lack of political will and clashing interests among officials pose as “major stumbling blocks” to the development of the Philippine agriculture sector.
“Our problem in the Philippines is that our agriculture sector is hostage to the terms of government officials,” Piñol said.
Under the proposed 10-year food-security program, the DA chief said the government would increase the availability of machines which rice and corn farmers could use to boost their output.
“I told the President if we do not mechanize then we can never compete. We are working on mechanization right now,” the DA chief said.
Piñol said a technical working group involving the Japan International Cooperation Agency and the DA is now threshing out the details of a long-term yen loan for Manila’s farm-mechanization program.
Apart from mechanization, he said he is keen on helping local fishermen by establishing fish distribution centers, cold-storage warehouses and ice-making facilities in the country’s major fishing grounds.
Piñol was not the first Cabinet official to float the idea of a legislated road map. In June, before assuming office, Transportation Secretary Arthur P. Tugade said he would push for a 30-year transportation road map to end traffic jams and improve mobility nationwide.
The national government is keen on growing farm production by 2.5 percent to 3.5 percent annually starting this year until 2022, when the President steps down from office, according to the draft of the Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2017-2022.
The previous administration had targeted to increase annual agriculture and fisheries output by 3 percent to 5 percent.
“The sector has yet to overcome recurring challenges related to productivity, competitiveness, climate and disaster risks, and resource degradation and depletion,” the draft PDP read.
For the crops subsector, which accounts for nearly half of agriculture and fisheries output, the government is targeting to hike production by 2 percent to 3 percent annually from 2017 to 2022.
To hit these goals, the draft PDP indicated that paddy-rice output should grow by 3.95 percent this year, 4.2 percent in 2018, 4.32 percent in 2019, 4.36 percent in 2020, 4.41 percent in 2021 and 4.45 percent in 2022.
Livestock and poultry production should also grow by 3 percent to 4 percent annually and forestry by 2 percent to 3 percent.
Image credits: Nonie Reyes