An agricultural faction on Wednesday appealed for the immediate adoption of policy measures addressing logistical challenges in agricultural goods in the event China takes Taiwan by force.
Parallel to this, a former Land Bank of the Philippines (LANDBANK) official proposes for the lender to implement policy changes making its services more accessible to farmers.
Danilo Fausto, president of the Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food Inc. (PCAFI), warned in a briefing Wednesday of the impact to the Philippines of any trade embargo or blockade of commercial shipping in the event China invades Taiwan.
“This is not to sound like an alarmist but being prepared and ready for our country and our people is worth investing our time and resources on. If this will not happen, and we hope it won’t, at least we have sufficient food stocks, with our farmers to benefit due to (an) increase in demand resulting (also) in increased productivity,” Fausto said.
He also said President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., as concurrent secretary of the Department of Agriculture (DA), must reconsider PCAFI’s proposed reforms presented as early as last year.
His recommendations include mandating strategic buffer stock for all grains and staples to ensure availability in emergencies, calamities, or war and to stabilize prices to tame inflation.
Stocks may be stored in vacant warehouses and silos that can be constructed on National Food Authority’s property throughout the country.
PCAFI also pushed for triple cropping in all irrigated lands and wider use of hybrid seed varieties in all planting areas, the acceleration of the distribution of farm machinery, the provision of subsidies for fertilizer inputs, synchronizing irrigation systems, the creation of a Bureau of Agricultural Cooperative in the DA, guaranteed minimum farm gate price for both rice and corn in sync with feeds’ processors, millers and wholesalers, and the hiring of agriculture technicians in every town and barangay clusters, among others.
For poultry and swine, Fausto appealed for support and encourage increase production of hatching eggs and piglets through more breeders and sows; repopulation of commercial pig farms or areas that can provide sufficient bio-security measures; procurement of animal disease vaccines; scaled-up production of cassava and sweet potato as part of substitutes for corn and feed wheat; and appeal to feed millers to promote and adopt contract growing schemes to assure markets for root crops.
As for fisheries and aquaculture, PCAFI wants the establishment of marine hatchery farms; development of backyard fish hatchlings and fingerlings’ production; establishment of mariculture parks; and increased overall support to revive and develop more fisheries locations.
Pablito Villegas, a former LANDBANK official, said in a separate briefing, recommends for the lender to “return to original mission” of serving farms clients.
Villegas said LANDBANK starts with a restoration or restructuring of its countryside banking operations by creating groups serving the mandated sector lending group focused on farmers and fisherfolks, the cooperatives and corporate agri-production entities, an agrarian reform services group to handle purely agrarian reform implementation and services; a technology, agribusiness and marketing assistance group; and a micro-small to medium enterprises and agro-industrial financing group.
