Feed millers seek government support

Feed millers seek government support

FEED millers and the government should work together to strengthen the local value chain and make food available on every Filipino's table.

This was stressed by the Philippine Association of Feed Millers, Inc. (Pafmi) during the Pilipinas Kontra Gutom Movement program on the government's campaign to fight hunger.

"What is important is we not only feed our country but also uplift the lives of everyone in the value chain – the farmers, chicken growers, workers, delivery men, consumers and so on," Nicole Sarmiento Garcia, Pafmi president, said.

"People don't see how hard it is to plant vegetables or grow chicken and pork. What they see are fried chicken and pork and cooked vegetables on their plates. To make a chicken, we have corn farmers, coconut farmers and palm farmers. They bring their products to us, millers, and we distribute feeds to broiler farmers, hog raisers and fish pen owners," Garcia, also the executive vice president of Vitarich, added.

She noted that part of the recovery after the pandemic is to solve the problem of hunger but that this can only be possible if all the sectors work together, even the consumers.

To be able to preserve the local value chain, she said, consumers should patronize local products and the government to support the farmers and the local breeders through education, equipment and financial support including market accessibility.

She added that while “we transition into a more self-sufficient model, we need to allow the value chain the cheapest and flexible inputs to provide affordable meat to the consumers.”

She said "our farmers are our country's unsung heroes" as they "provide food on our plates."

"Their work is not like ours sitting in an air-conditioned room. They sweat, their backs ache. They are not in the best (working) condition. And the irony of it is that they provide us food, and yet they are the ones who are unable to eat nutritious food," she added.

Garcia said for this, the government and the private sector should help farmers and promote local production of food throughout the whole agricultural chain for the country to attain food security for all.

"I believe that the more we become locally viable, the more we will have food security and I would really like to encourage everyone to buy Filipino products. When you buy our own locally grown vegetables and rice, Filipino farm-raised poultry and hog meat we not only feed ourselves, but we also feed and give dignity of livelihood to our farmers," she added.

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