The tandem of Senator Panfilo Lacson and Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III, who are running for president and vice president, respectively, in the May 9 polls, seeks to be a game changer for the agriculture sector of the country.
Lacson said the national government can afford to subsidize agriculture in a gradual way in order to boost the sector that they consider as the backbone of the Philippine economy. They propose that the national government buys all the outputs of the farmers for a reasonable farmgate price.
He said there are three basic components in agriculture, namely, the seed, fertilizer, and irrigation.
Irrigation is of prime important in their agri-agenda, Lacson said, since data show that there are at least three million hectares of irrigable land and almost 1.1 million hectares not yet irrigated. Lacson estimated that the government would spend P300,000 to irrigate per hectare of land.
“It can consume a big chunk of the national budget if this will be implemented in just one year, but in our proposal, the implementation should be within three years,” he said, adding the national government would only spend P50 billion a year in three years in order to fully irrigate potential lands in the country.
Lacson cited Vietnam and Thailand where their governments are subsidizing the agriculture sector. Both countries have around 17 million hectares of irrigated lands.
Since the Negros agriculture was badly hit by Typhoon Odette amid the high price of fertilizer, Lacson suggests the use of calamity funds to aid the sector.
“Maybe, the national and local governments can come in since the prices of fertilizer in also dependent on the fluctuation in oil prices,” he added.
Sotto added that they are also proposing to subsidize the fertilizer and the irrigation charges under their agriculture agenda.
“Kaya talagang mahalaga ang role of farmers in sustaining food security,” he said.
Sotto agreed that the national government can afford to subsidize the agriculture sector, and that its intervention is very important. He challenged the local media to sound off their proposals to local government units.
“We are ready to address the concerns of farmers, not only in the Negros Island but in the whole country as well,” he added.
He said they are proud to present their agenda since it has a clear program of implementation as it is a product of a well-researched situation, and not only a motherhood statement.
Lacson and Sotto answered questions during a virtual press conference on what they can do to help farmers devastated by the recent typhoon, as well as their platform of government. — MML
