Agriculture

The Philippine Competition Commission sees a ‘dual setback’ arising from imposing rice import bans if it is proven that traders and wholesalers are involved in importing the grain. PCC Director Carlos Juan Paolo Vega said the import freeze could pose an uptick in retail rice prices while farmers might remain at the mercy of those holding power over rice supply. …

The United Coconut Association of the Philippines said it is confident that local coconut production will recover next year and boost the supply of coconut oil for biodiesel. UCAP Vice Chair Dean Lao Jr. said the expected rebound in output next year would create an ideal environment to raise the biodiesel blend to 4 percent (B4). “The government should increase the …

The Department of Agrarian Reform has released 721 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) from the clutches of debt from  Davao Oriental as DAR Davao Region distributed Certificates of Condonation with Release of Mortgage (COCROMs). DAR awarded 1,001 COCROMs to 721 ARBs, effectively condoning P9.93 million in amortization and interests pursuant to Republic Act No. 11953, which provides significant financial relief and …

BEYOND ELLIPTICALBy Rose Marie de la Cruz For the longest time, farmers and fisherfolk have been denouncing the surge in importations of almost all food items in the country, to a point of robbing them outright of their share of the local market. But most of the time, their clamor had fallen on deaf ears. This is just from legitimate …

Ako bicol Partylist Rep. Elizaldy Co certainly knew how to use his position, as chair of the House Appropriations Committee, to his utmost advantage.  Not only does he figure in the flood control mess that has shaken the country to the core, but he was also responsible for advancing his own fishing companies, by twisting the arm of the Department …

BEYOND ELLIPTICALBy Rose Marie de la Cruz The first step is to project an expected shortfall in onions, then the following day an announcement of the onions (red and yellow) to be imported come November.  This has been the pattern each year of the Department of Agriculture, which raises the question– why can’t we even produce enough so we don’t …

A command center that would manage the country’s food supply chain– ereging all commodities data from different agencies–  would soon be up and operating in November, as promised by Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. As envisioned, the command center will consolidate critical data, including production, imports, stock levels, different types of the same products, movements, wholesale and retail prices, …

The  declaration by the President of a rice import ban, beginning September 1, would put heavy pressure on rice prices even with the increased local rice output. The US Department of Agriculture said the Philippines imported over 750,000 metric tons from mid-September to mid November in the last two years and that import demand during the import ban is pegged …

Aware of the huge cost in storing imported rice and buying new harvests of the local farmers, the Department of Agriculture has devised a scheme to compel accredited rice traders to hold part of the national rice reserves in their storage facilities as well as save part of their rice imports for government’s rice sufficiency program. It envisions a 50-50 …

During The 2013 destruction by typhoon Haiyan in the eastern coastal towns, most villages were left with nothing and many islanders perished from the storm surges and tsunamis. But the residents of Gen. MacArthur in Eastern Samar, a small community in the path of the super typhoon, was spared because it had preserved and treated its mangroves as wildlife treasure. …