The Department of Agriculture (DA) is preparing a food logistics plan as part of proposed interventions to reboot the country’s agriculture and fishery sector amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
“We believe the initiatives will help reinvigorate the Philippine countryside after surmounting the COVID-19 pandemic, by increasing food production and establishment of postharvest, storage and logistics systems,” Agriculture Secretary William Dar said in a statement.
“Our proposed interventions are under our new banner program, called ‘Plant, Plant, Plant Program,’ [Agri 4Ps] totaling P66 billion. It forms part of the bigger economic stimulus package that the House of Representative (HOR) and the Senate are deliberating upon to revive the country’s economy,” Dar added.
The proposed interventions include food logistics/food markets and other interventions for P20 billion; ALPAS Kontra sa COVID-19 for P31 billion; and Cash for Work (C4W) program for P15 billion.
The proposed food logistics/food markets intervention “is an essential aspect for our supply chain management to grow and expand,” Dar said.
“While we have the metro markets and the bagsakan areas, these are not enough given the population that we have. We need to have an effective distribution system so that farmers can bring in their produce and harvests from the trading posts in the provinces and link them to big food markets nationwide,” the DA chief added.
Dar said the best practices of other countries will benefit Filipino farmers from the said kind of engagement. “It can be a win-win situation both for producers and consuming public,” he said.
Photo courtesy from DA
