MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Agriculture (DA) has called for continued government support to strengthen the competitiveness of the farm sector.
Agriculture Undersecretary Segfredo Serrano lauded the government for increased support in terms of agricultural research and development.
“Before, the county has less than P1 billion allotted for that, now the fund has ballooned to P3 billion, which all goes to the design and the generation of technologies that will make farmers more productive,” he said.
Serrano, however, noted there is more to be done especially on the regulatory front to protect Filipino farmers through better education and compliance with standards.
“We need to be able to protect them from smuggling, from commodities that are cheap but poor in quality, from entering our shores,” he said.
Serrano also cited the importance of retaining the farmer population in the sector as the DA looks into the lingering impacts and effects of climate change.
“We are not funding anything that is not consistent with our climate adaptation resiliency framework. If we have a proposal for an infrastructure project, it must be specified and designed in such a way that it can withstand the expected physical violence of climate change,” he explained.