Agendas for the Philippine agriculture sector

Last of two parts

LAST week's essay argued that it is critical to provide substantial fertilizer subsidies to our farmers if a drastic decline in our agricultural productivity is to be arrested across crops. In addition, it posited that it is equally vital to maintain the implementation of the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL) because it provides guaranteed funding to improve the efficiency of our palay farmers from the rice tariff proceeds (around P47 billion has been collected). Resuscitating the old National Food Authority (NFA) will mean pouring billions of pesos to the agency which the economy can ill afford given our tight fiscal situation due to the dramatic increase of our debt during the pandemic.

Besides rising petrol, fertilizer and agricultural commodity prices brought about by the Russia-Ukraine war, there are still pressing challenges that the next leadership of the Department of Agriculture (DA) will have to face. As a result, the incoming set of leaders is not afforded the luxury of a learning curve as it is imperative that they hit the ground running if the country will be able to weather the looming global food catastrophe.