The Department of Agriculture (DA) will unveil an ambitious strategy to revitalize the farm sector to boost food production, improve the lives of farmers and fisherfolk and create more jobs.
Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. announced the plan at the agency’s flag-raising ceremony Tuesday, rallying DA employees to face the challenges head-on.
“2024 is a new year and it will be a very challenging year. As I told you last time, all eyes are trained on us, more on me probably because I’m the new agriculture secretary. The entire country expects that we could feed them and that we will try to bring commodity prices down,” Laurel said.
Recognizing the urgency of the task, Laurel said modernization is the cornerstone of the plan. The goal is to achieve food security by reducing reliance on agricultural imports. Achieving the vision requires better data collection, embracing new technologies and widespread adoption of farm mechanization, he said.
He said that within the next 10 days, the DA would unveil a detailed roadmap outlining the steps to achieve the ambitious goals. Laurel urged employees to embrace a sense of urgency, citing the El Niño phenomenon and the limited time remaining in President Marcos’ term.
“We can do this. But I need your help, I need your full cooperation for the DA to achieve its goals,” he told the DA workforce.
“Basically, a lot of things need to be done. We need to do this with a sense of urgency because there are only four years left in the administration of President Marcos. And we also have to change the perception of Filipinos, that we can produce more food for our country,” he said.
He said that by ramping up local production, the Philippines could narrow the substantial agricultural trade deficit currently standing at $11.8 billion, which is about four times the budget of the DA in 2024.
The DA said channeling the funds spent on imports directly into the pockets of farmers and fisherfolk would have a profound impact on stakeholders while simultaneously strengthening a sector that employs 40 percent of the Filipino workforce.
