Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said agriculture will remain among the top concerns of the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte to fulfill its goal of raising farm productivity and rural incomes.
Dominguez said that improving agricultural output and raising farmers’ incomes through education and the use of new farm technologies emerged as the No. 1 actionable recommendation of the private sector in the four “Sulong Pilipinas” events held last November.
“Even the business community recognizes the importance of the farm sector in sustaining the economy’s high growth rate.”
This he said, shows that even the business community recognizes the importance of the farm sector in sustaining the economy’s high growth rate.
“We know that the major reason for the inflation this year has been the logistics problems we have had in agriculture as well as production problems.”
“We will focus on agriculture in the coming years. We know that the major reason for the inflation this year has been the logistics problems we have had in agriculture as well as production problems,” the finance chief said in response to a query by businessman George Barcelon during a recent business forum.
Barcelon is the chairman of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), which helped organize in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao last November the four regional workshops of Sulong Pilipinas, the annual consultative meeting with the private sector pioneered by the Duterte administration to gather the inputs and recommendations of the business sector and civil society on how to fulfill the government’s goal of high and inclusive growth.
The government responded swiftly to the elevated inflation rate that rose to 6.4 percent in August and 6.7 percent in September and October through a series of measures recommended by the economic team which are aimed at streamlining procedures for agricultural imports, given that food supply issues were among the main drivers of inflation during these months.
Among these measures was Administrative Order No. 13 signed by the President on Sept. 21 to remove administrative restrictions on the importation of agricultural products.
The President also issued Memorandum Order (MO) 26 directing the Department of Agriculture (DA) and of Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to implement measures to reduce the gap between farm gate prices and the retail prices of agricultural products.
MO 27, meanwhile, ordered the DA, Department of the Interior and Local Government, Philippine National Police (PNP), and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority to “adopt measures to ensure the efficient and seamless delivery” of imported agricultural and fishery products from ports to markets, while MO 28 directed the National Food Authority (NFA) to immediately release existing rice stocks in its warehouses.
The directives issued by the President form part of the measures unveiled in early September by the Economic Development Cluster of the Cabinet to help rein in inflation.
The other measures included the creation of monitoring teams composed of the DTI, NFA, PNP, National Bureau of Investigation, and farmers’ groups to closely monitor the transport of rice from the ports to NFA warehouses and retail outlets.
In addition, the DA was tasked to replicate the issuance of certificates of necessity to allow fish imports to be distributed in Metro Manila’s wet markets and other markets of the country; and reducing the gap between the farm gate and retail prices of chicken by setting up public markets where producers can sell directly to consumers.
As part of the measures, the Sugar Regulatory Administration also opened sugar imports to direct users; and the Bureau of Customs prioritized the release of essential food items in the ports.
