Agri execs told to scale up food production

Agriculture Secretary William Dar has issued a marching order to regional executives amid the challenges of food stability and security: bolster food production to ensure the affordability of food items nationwide.

“Produce more, when prices start going up. The more supply, the more affordable they are,” Dar said on the last day of the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) management committee meeting.

Dar directed regional executive directors to keep a close eye on the prices and supply of food products in the markets as the ongoing challenges pose threats to food stability and security.

Regional chiefs and other field operating units are likewise told to regularly monitor the inventories of food items in the markets and make sure that prices are fair.

With the coronavirus pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine affecting the country’s agriculture sector, Dar called for the fast-tracking of interventions to cushion the impact of oil price spike and immediate rollout of financial assistance to farmers and fishers.

He also urged agriculture officials and staff to immediately carry out the strategies outlined in the Plant, Plant, Plant Program Part 2, including the production of feeds using local materials, ensuring the buffer stock of seeds during calamities and enforcing elevated control measures to prevent the spread of animal disease.

The expanded food security program will require focused efforts on the execution of balanced fertilization strategy in food production areas, the inclusion of biofertilizers and biostimulants in the subsidy vouchers distributed to local farmers, the prioritization of the upscaling of the production of aquaculture and mariculture, and ensuring the mobilization of food supply.

Rainwater harvesting

In addition, Dar called for the implementation of more rainwater harvesting projects to allow water during rainy season to be collected and stored for the needs of high-value crops and aquaculture.

This strategy, he said, will also address soil erosion and flooding during typhoons. “Retrofit the big dams, so that secondary and tertiary dams will receive the surplus water which flows once the gates are opened.”

As the Duterte administration will wrap up its term in 90 days, the DA laid out other important matters the agency will undertake such as farm consolidation which remains a major, inevitable strategy toward industrialization and leveraging on the “collective power” of farmers’ cooperatives and associations.

It will utilize the Provincial Agricultural and Fisheries Extension Systems to monitor the proper implementation of agrifishery services and institutionalize the national urban and peri-urban agriculture program with a significant budget.

Furthermore, the agency will rely on its banner programs to attain higher food sufficiency in all commodities, impose more effective animal disease control strategies including the establishment of transboundary animal research facilities and ensure the adaptation of crop diversification, and map out commodities to be highlighted during trade agreements.