AGRIBUSINESS
About 12 million Filipinos work in the agricultural sector. If the country can significantly increase its exports and imports of agricultural goods, agricultural provinces would generate much greater revenue, provide more employment opportunities, and lessen poverty in rural areas. This is especially important for Mindanao, the country's breadbasket that has great underdeveloped potential for agricultural exports.
Background
The Philippine agricultural sector comprised 19% of GDP in 2009 and employed 34% of the labor force. Yet agricultural products made up only 8.3% of total Philippine commodity exports and Philippine agricultural exports were the smallest of the ASEAN-5. [ Read This Chapter ]Recommendations
Philippine agriculture needs to explore fully the immense new market opportunities that AFTA and other new FTAs present for both traditional and new agricultural exports. The farming sector should be made more aware of these enhanced export opportunities.... [ Read This Chapter ]
DTI unveils new industrial strategy
29 November, 2016 at 10:57
The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has unveiled a new industrial strategy that would revive the country’s manufacturing sector and accelerate further its growth in the coming years.
Business Sector Calls for a Policy Framework...
13 October, 2016 at 16:57
A joint group of business leaders and economists today called on government to carefully review the proposal of the Department of Agrarian Reform to prohibit the conversion of agricultural lands to non-agricultural purposes…
Moratorium on land conversion to derail economy...
7 October, 2016 at 13:35
Various local and foreign business groups yesterday bonded together to reject the proposed two-year moratorium on land conversion into non-agricultural purposes…
Free Land Distribution and Nationalization of 19...
27 September, 2016 at 10:13
Communist negotiators are pushing for free land distribution and public ownership of industries as they prepare to sit down with the government for the crucial phase of the peace talks in Norway in two weeks.
Palace abandons rice program, but not Piñol
5 September, 2016 at 09:27
The Department of Agriculture (DA) will now have to look for other funding sources for its rice self-sufficiency dream, after the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) deleted the P18-billion supposed allocation for the program.
Consensus reached over NFA reform
31 August, 2016 at 11:00
A plan to strip the National Food Authority (NFA) of the power to buy and sell rice has now taken a concrete shape, with economic managers of the Duterte administration arriving at a consensus that the grains agency must stay as a regulator.
NEDA eyes policy change to allow commercial...
26 August, 2016 at 11:15
Policy reforms would be implemented in land administration to pave the way for large scale commercial farming which is deemed productive and profitable for farmers, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said yesterday.
SC reverses ruling on Bt ‘talong’ tests
1 August, 2016 at 11:00
The Supreme Court on Tuesday reversed its decision rendered in December last year that stopped the field testing of the controversial genetically modified eggplants and issuance of new permits on genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
[VIDEO] Businessmen laud Duterte’s 1st SONA
27 July, 2016 at 14:01
Despite that perceived repercussions for miners, most other business groups give President Duterte a high mark for his first address to the nation. – Business Nightly, ANC, July 25, 2016
We need rifles, not shotguns
18 July, 2016 at 10:45
I’ve been writing much lately about rice, and agriculture in general, because what we’ve been doing wrong all along on that commodity and that sector has wrought an inordinate amount of damage on our economy and on our people through the years.
Figures that would make you want to...
15 July, 2016 at 09:18
Look at these numbers: Rice yield in the Philippines is 3.9 metric tons per hectare; in Vietnam it’s 5.6 mt/ha. For corn, it’s 2.9 vs. 4.4; coconut 4.3 vs. 9.7; sugarcane 5.8 vs. 6.5; coffee 0.34 vs. 2.5; cassava 10.9 vs. 17.9.
The President’s Men and Women: Manny Piñol...
13 July, 2016 at 15:00
It was just another Monday for then North Cotabato governor Emmanuel “Manny” Piñol when Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano requested that the local official accompany him to visit then president-elect Duterte in Davao City.
Making farmers profitable
12 July, 2016 at 18:30
“DA targets 100 percent rice self-sufficiency in 2 years,” ran the headline of a recent news story. “Oh, no, not again,” I thought to myself, getting a sense of déjà vu. Six years ago, the Department of Agriculture also boldly declared that we will achieve rice self-sufficiency in three years.
Lifting farmers out of poverty
8 July, 2016 at 10:52
The Duterte administration seems to be genuinely concerned about lifting our farmers out of poverty. Finance Secretary Sonny Dominguez recently told a group of businessmen that this administration is planning a revolution in agriculture.
Business leaders give economic agenda to Duterte
29 June, 2016 at 10:50
THE business community presented its counter 10-point economic recommendations to the Duterte administration at the close of the two-day business forum-cum-workshop, dubbed “Sulong Pilipinas,” held in Davao.
Villar: Agri law to benefit farmers, fishermen
1 June, 2016 at 13:30
Manila, Philippines – The passage into law of an agricultural program extending funding to small farmers and fishermen will help legitimate beneficiaries, a lawmaker said yesterday.
