DAVAO CITY—President Duterte said he would consider the suggestion of Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol to revert the supervision of the National Food Authority (NFA) to the Department of Agriculture (DA).
Duterte told reporters here over the weekend that he would consult the NFA Administrator Jason Laureano Y. Aquino regarding the possibility of returning the supervision of the NFA to the DA. “We have to hear his opinion also.”
The NFA, National Irrigation Administration, Philippine Coconut Authority, and the Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority were transferred to the Office of the President in May 2014. Former President Aquino signed Executive Order 165 which authorized the transfer.
The President said he agreed with the suggestion of Piñol that the NFA should be given a bigger role in ensuring that the country would have a steady food supply.
During the launch of the TienDA farmers’ market at the Ayala-owned Abreeza Mall here, Piñol said that while the NFA “is not under me, as the secretary of Agriculture I am recommending that the NFA be given a wider role in ensuring food supply.”
“The NFA should not only be a rice-importing agency, especially so that we are expecting to produce enough rice by 2020. We will not be dependent anymore in importing rice,” he said.
Piñol said the NFA “should be consolidator of products, from their regions to be repositioned in other parts of the country where these are needed.”
“If there is an abundance of fish in Zamboanga, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, let the NFA put up a regional food depot that would consolidate all fish produce to Cebu or Manila,” he said. “If there is abundance of vegetables in Baguio, let the NFA consolidate these products to the other parts of the country where the commodity is needed.”
Piñol’s suggestion came after he lambasted traders and middlemen for taking advantage of farmers and fishermen, causing them to “lose their enthusiasm to produce more.”
“The sad story in this food-supply chain in this country is that, the traders and middlemen dictate how much a fisherman would earn from his catch, or how much the farmer would earn from his produce. He also determines the price of his goods in the market,” he added.
For example, Piñol noted that, in February 2018, “when the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources lifts the three-month closed fishing season in the Visayan Sea and Zamboanga Peninsula, the price of tamban and bangsi is expected to go as low as P5 per kilogram [kg].”
But this would only be in the communities near the fishing grounds. “Brought to the market by the traders who own the fish vans and fish cars, the same fish sold by the fishermen would fetch at least P100 per kg.”