Agriculture

By Rose de la Cruz The Federation of Free Farmers is asking Congress to investigate alleged extortion activities of some personnel at the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) from farm school owners and managers to expedite the release of grants for farmer-scholars. The same group also asked newly-appointed TESDA Director General Jose Francisco Benitez to conduct a similar  …

While still governor of Ilocos Norte, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. (now president) lobbied hard with his father, President Marcos Sr. and mom, First Lady, Imelda Romualdez Marcos to fund the Northern Foods Corp., that would process the province’s tomato products for value adding. Then costing P110 million, NFC (a failed tomato venture founded by Marcos Jr. in the 1980s), closed after …

On August 16, acting on information from Agriculture Secretary Francisco P. Tiu Laurel Jr., a composite team from the Department of Agriculture-Inspectorate and Enforcement Office, the Bureau of Customs, and other law enforcement units, raided an illegal storage facility in Navotas that led to the seizure of over 300 tons of smuggled vegetables, including onions and carrots. Tiu Laurel cited …

Much of our milk and cheese are imported because our country lacks grazing pastures for the ruminants and large cows have difficulty sourcing their food from the usual foraging areas and prices of imported grains are constantly rising. Exactly a month ago, the Inquirer featured the dairy industry’s prospects amid a climate change and the rapid urbanization of erstwhile pastures …

By Rose de la Cruz While it is good to hear that next to Costa Rica, the Philippines is the second largest pineapple exporter in the world because of the rising demand from China, most people don’t know the exploitative conditions for contractual workers employed by the industry– long hours, no healthcare benefits, no fixed wages and many more. At …

By Rose de la Cruz The woeful slide of the Philippines, in practically every agricultural product, from the largest producer and exporter to the largest importer, continues to haunt our history books in agriculture. From the eighth largest producer of pork in the world, the Philippines is now the largest importer/consumer of Brazilian pork merely because we have miserably failed …

By Rose de la Cruz For decades, the local governments surrounding the fragile Marikina Watershed have been playing blind to businesses that have been sprouting like mushrooms in that ecosystem. Not surprisingly, profits and tax revenues have been their priorities. Now the Department of Environment and Natural Resources has prepared and would be issuing 540 show cause orders to these …

By Rose de la Cruz With farmers having lost an estimated P15.30 billion from El Nino and the coming La Nina (which brings heavy rains and subsequent floods that would soak farms and destroy more crops), it is necessary to extend the life of the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) if only to sustain the livelihood of rice farmers and …

By Rose de la Cruz Food inflation inched up slightly last June from 6.5 percent to 6.7 percent owing to higher prices of meat (4.8 percent from 3.1 percent); corn (17.5 percent from 13.1 percent); fruits (8.4 percent from 5.6 percent); eggs and dairyt products (1.8 percent from 1.3 percent) and ready-made food products (6 percent from 5.9 pecent) even …

By Rose de la Cruz Not even the best scenario of 1 to 2 percent growth for the agriculture sector can be achieved this year because of the damage from crops from El Nino during the first half of the year and the threats of further losses from the coming La Nina, either this month until October. At least this …