Heirloom rice has market outside, inside PH
By Vincent CabrezaOrganic heirloom rice production has found a niche market abroad, gauging by the slow but steady increase in volume of indigenous rice exports.
Organic heirloom rice production has found a niche market abroad, gauging by the slow but steady increase in volume of indigenous rice exports.
June 6 was the last working day of the 15th Congress. On that day, a critical component of the legislature met to take action on agriculture. This is the Congressional Oversight Committee on Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization (Cocafm). The Cocafm was created as part of the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act (Afma). Its mandate is to promote agriculture development through modernization.
The Department of Agriculture has set aside P1 billion for a lending program to help farmers, fishers and rural entrepreneurs and has also called on rural banks to provide rural folk greater access to funds.
The Board of Investments has approved the granting of incentives to the P313-million project of Maharlika Agro-Marine Ventures Corp., a new export producer of dressed ducks and by-products.
Ask THE media and people in the street about manufacturing, and many will tell you, it is about cars, chemicals, clothing, electronics, steel and machines. Very few know that agri-food manufacturing is a strategic part of it.
Singapore-listed food and beverage firm Del Monte Pacific Ltd. has firmed up its dual listing on the Philippine Stock Exchange by way of introduction or without any public equity offering.
Cassava has huge potential and could turn from “a poor people’s food into a 21st century crop” if grown according to a new environmentally friendly farming model, the UN food agency said on Tuesday.
Poverty statistics released recently must have shocked even P-Noy against the backdrop and drum beatings of a healthy and robust economy, stock market at all-time highs, and pronouncements of an inclusive growth and not leaving a single Filipino behind.
Filipino farmers are starting to use the rice-growing method that has recently made India the world’s top rice exporter.
Are road maps necessary to achieve growth? The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) appears to think so. The DBM has initially turned down the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) budget proposal of a 48-percent increase from P65 billion in 2013 to P96 billion in 2014. Instead, the DBM has recommended a 26-percent decrease to P48 billion… unless the DA submits road maps. But are road maps really necessary for agriculture growth?
Milagros Ong How, executive vice president of top fertilizer manufacturer and distributor Universal Harvester Inc., says she did not learn about the complex field of agriculture from books or in classrooms.
Given the recent Senate elections indicating our people’s support for President Aquino’s governance, his goal of inclusive growth can now be better attained. PNoy identified three areas that best contribute to this goal: agriculture, infrastructure and tourism.
