Seeking to address the increasing prices of fertilizers, President and Agriculture Secretary Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos Jr. said he is willing to pursue government-to-government (G2G) deals.

The government could avail of cheaper fertilizers through the G2G deals, he said.

“Gusto tayong tulungan, gusto tayong lapitan, eh ‘di take advantage naman tayo, ‘di ba. Sige bigyan niyo kami ng fertilizer na medyo maganda-ganda ang presyo (They want to help us, they want to approach us, so let’s take advantage of it. Okay, give us fertilizer with good pricing). That’s the whole point of G2G,” the President told agriculture officials in a meeting on Monday, July 18.

According to Marcos, he is looking into communicating with China, Indonesia, United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, and Russia for the country’s procurement of fertilizers.

“I’m thinking would it be useful for us if sulatan ko silang lahat (I’ll write to all of them) and I’ll say that we are in the market to buy this volume of fertilizer,” he said.

With this, he told agriculture officials to provide data on the source of and price of fertilizers, as well as the department’s distribution plan during the planting season.

Marcos also ordered the agriculture department to come up with a farm-to-market road (FMR) master plan that will serve as a guide for the government.

The master plan, he said, must be thoroughly studied by the agriculture department and must be presented to the country’s economic managers.

The most pressing issues that need to be addressed in the agricultural sector include increasing rice production and reorganizing the DA and its attached agencies, the chief executive said.

Source:
courtesy of MANILA BULLETIN

by Jel Santos

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