A JAPANESE executive of a fertilizer firm sees the need for more government subsidies to aid the slow harvest of the country’s agriculture sector.
Atlas Fertilizer Corp. president and chief executive officer (CEO) Takashi Sumi said subsidies in farm machinery, crop insurance, seeds and fertilizers are vital to the sector that is performing at a sluggish but recovering rate.
Still, he commended the recent move of the Department of Agriculture (DA) to provide free irrigation to farmers, which he considers a step to uplift the country’s agriculture, which is one of the most vulnerable in the world to natural disasters.
“The Philippine agriculture sector has more room to grow. For example, our rice harvest yield is very small. Vietnam (produces) double and China by four times,” Sumi said.
In a press conference at the Cebu City Waterfront Hotel and Casino for the 60th anniversary of AFC yesterday, the expat shared that the company is in talks with the DA to encourage the government to provide more subsidies to farmers, including fertilizer.
Recently, Sumi said he met with a DA undersecretary, whom he did not identify. The Japanese executive said it was made known to him that the government’s priority starts with irrigation, then mechanization, followed by financial support to small farmers. “Next is hybrid seeds. To support these hybrid seeds, fertilizer perhaps is the next,” said Subi.
The Toledo City-based company is the biggest fertilizer firm in the country, supplying roughly 25 percent of the country’s total fertilizer demand of 1.8 million metric tons annually. In a year, it produces 300,000 metric tons of fertilizer and imports and directly sells another 150,000 metric tons.
Generally, however, too much use of fertilizer is harmful to the environment since excess nutrients runs into the waterways, which are harmful to both aquatic life and humans.
Nevertheless, AFC assistant vice president for national sales Ernest Gangas assured that the company educates farmers on the sustainable and responsible use of fertilizers to provide good yields and higher profit with minimal environmental effects.
With the gradual recovery of the agriculture sector, Sumi said it intends to grow the company’s capacity by investing about P1 billion for the rehabilitation of its plant in Toledo City, a former subsidiary of Atlas Mining, now Carmen Copper.
This will bring AFC’s capacity to roughly 400,000 metric tons in the next three to four years.
In the first quarter of 2017, the country’s agriculture sector grew by 5.28 percent, after several quarters of declines. At current prices, gross value of agricultural production amounted to P407.6 billion or 8.79 percent higher than the previous year’s record, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
Fertilizer subsidy became controversial in 2004 when DA implemented the Farm Input and Farm Implement Program (FIFIP), an alleged anomalous project that uncovered the “fertilizer scam.”