MANILA: President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. on Wednesday met with officials of the Department of Agriculture (DA) to discuss the agency’s three-year plan to boost the agriculture and fisheries sector.
In a sectoral meeting at Malacañan Palace in Manila, the DA, led by Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr., presented the three-year plan to increase agricultural productivity, lower food cost, ensure food security, and develop the agri-fishery industry.
The plan was presented, as Marcos emphasized the need to improve the agriculture sector, including aquaculture.
‘Basically, our three-year plan is to invest in post-harvest facilities and to have more recovery for our products and hopefully to partly lower the cost of rice and corn,’ Laurel said in a Palace press briefing after the meeting with Marcos.
‘Besides that, we have a big digitalization move, in order to get more accurate production data for our production. As you know, we need real production data in order to be able to manage the food supply of the coun
try effectively,’ he added.
Laurel said the DA is eyeing the construction of cold storage facilities with 5,000 pallet positions for high-value crops, including vegetables, to address the oversupply of agricultural products in the country.
He said extending the shelf life of vegetables by putting them into cold storage chains is seen as an ‘immediate action’ to solve overproduction which he stressed is a ‘result of poor planning and [coordination] with the market.”
Budget allocation
He noted that around PHP1 billion would be alloted for the establishment of four cold storage facilities in Luzon.
‘If we try to solve the problem as soon as possible, assuming 2025, I need an additional PHP5 billion to address the vegetable cold storage issue of the whole nation. How to get the money? I’m still new in government so I’m still trying to figure that out also,’ Laurel said.
In a separate statement, Communications Secretary Cheloy Garafil said the DA is planning to pursue four chiller storage projects in La Unio
n or Baguio, Taguig City, Quezon, and Occidental Mindoro.
Laurel also said the allotment of PHP93 billion is needed for the construction of post-harvest facilities in the next three years.
‘(For the) post-harvest facility alone, we need PHP93 billion in the next three years in order to save PHP10.7 billion a year on wasted rice and corn because we’re losing about 12.7 to 15 percent of our rice production due to a lack of post-harvest facility. So sa rice and corn pa lang na post harvest (for the post-harvest facilities for rice and corn, we need) PHP93 billion,’ he said.
‘No major post-harvest facility was funded by the government in the last 40 years. Puro maliliit, patingi-tingi which is actually irrelevant or useless. Sayang (It’s all small, tiny which is actually irrelevant or useless. What a waste). That’s why we really need to fund these projects but we cannot build them small. We have to build bigger,’ Laurel added.
The DA has established around 268 cold chain facilities nationwide, as of November
last year.
By June 2028, the DA targets to complete an additional 47 cold chain facilities.
Enough rice supply
Laurel said the construction of post-harvest facilities is crucial in increasing the rice and corn inventory by 23 days.
Garafil, citing data from the DA, said the current corn and rice post-harvest losses are about 494,000 metric tons (MT) or PHP10.76 billion a year.
She said the DA said milled rice production could be 3.89 million MT a year, with a recovery rate of 63 percent after milling, through the procurement of paddy dryers.
Despite the rice wastage, Laurel assured the public that the country has sufficient supply.
‘We have enough supply of rice. December, medyo healthy ang ating stocks. January is healthy, there’s additional rice coming. As far as the price is concerned, mahirap ma-predict (it’s so hard to predict). Ang problema, ‘yung (The problem is the) world price ay tumataas (is rising),’ he said.
Asked if the goal to lower the price of rice to PHP20 per kilo could be achieved,
Laurel said the agency is exhausting all efforts to make it attainable.
‘It’s an aspiration. It’s a target. We’ll try our best. Mas maganda may goal para (It’s better to have a goal so) everybody tries to achieve it as hard as possible,’ he said.
Source: Philippines News Agency