THE National Federation of Sugarcane Planters (NFSP) has expressed hopes that the decision of incoming President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. to head the Department of Agriculture (DA) will be beneficial to the entire agriculture sector.
NFSP President Enrique Rojas, in a statement Wednesday, June 22, said Marcos has first-hand experience with agriculture.
When he was governor of Ilocos Norte, Marcos boosted the rice and corn yields in his province. When he was senator, he also authored bills that supported agriculture, Rojas said.
“With his experience as the local chief executive of his province and as a legislator, incoming President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. can readily recognize and immediately act on the problems which have been besetting agriculture for many decades,” Rojas added.
The NFSP president cited such problems as insufficient government support for crop financing, farm mechanization, research and development, high fertilizer and fuel costs, and protection from importation of cheaper and highly subsidized agricultural products which displace local products in the domestic market.
Rojas said the sugar industry plays a key role in the country’s economy, as demonstrated by its contributions in keeping the Negros economy afloat during the height of the Covid pandemic.
He also hoped that Marcos would appreciate the sugar industry’s contributions in sustaining the country's economy during the pandemic.
For the sugar leader, with Marcos at the helm of the DA, he can pursue bills that support agriculture, and he can also introduce and immediately implement programs that can further boost our agricultural output.
The war in Europe between Russia and Ukraine has aggravated the cost of fuel and, worse, it drove fertilizer prices to more than three times their original cost before the pandemic, the planters group said.
High fuel prices and fertilizer costs will reduce productivity and will drastically lower the profits of farmers, it said.
“We hope that President Marcos will also recognize the threats of ever-increasing fuel and fertilizer prices being faced by our farmers, and that he will institutionalize programs which can help secure the sustainability of our agricultural sector and the sugar industry for the benefit of hundreds of thousands of marginal farmers and their families,” its president added. (With PR)