By The Financial District
Apr 51 min
The Department of Agriculture (DA) has unveiled a four-year plan aimed at boosting the country’s food production while simultaneously taming food inflation.
Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. highlighted that this four-year plan includes medium-term strategies that will benefit farmers and consumers in the long run. I Photo: Jay Morales, DA-OSEC
Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. highlighted that this four-year plan includes medium-term strategies that will benefit farmers and consumers in the long run.
“We already have a master plan on how to accomplish what needs to be done to lower the price of food, increase production, and benefit our farmers and fishers,” he stressed.
Laurel further disclosed the DA’s four major projects for its four-year plan, which include the USD320 million-worth Philippine Solar Irrigation Project; the USD350 million internationally-funded farm-to-market bridge construction; a USD400 to USD500 million budget allocation for post-harvest facilities; and the logistics chain modernization program, which includes the improvement of the country's ports.
He revealed that the DA also plans to advance the digitalization of its system to secure centralized data from the ground to the command center for decision-making and the use of smart farming to reduce the consumption of seeds and fertilizers per hectare.
Through the four-year plan and its component projects and intervention measures, Laurel underscored, “Hopefully, we will increase our production, lower our import volumes, and decrease food prices in general.”
Laurel earlier ordered the creation of three teams to complete the feasibility studies on the priority infrastructure projects of the DA.