FILE PHOTO: A farmer dries palay in Pulilan, Bulacan province, in a sign of good harvest amid rising prices. Government plans to import more rice are likely to hurt local farmers. Philippine Daily Inquirer/Niño Jesus Orbeta
MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Monday said new agricultural technologies are needed to address problems such as erratic rice prices and climate change.
Marcos, also the concurrent Agriculture Secretary, said the Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU) and Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) have been making important agricultural research and development efforts that should be applied to rice farms nationwide.
“Nahihirapan tayo dahil sa climate change, we have had to control the prices of rice because the markets are very volatile, so we are trying to stabilize it here in the Philippines,” he said in a speech in Ilocos Norte.
(We are struggling due to climate change; we have had to control rice prices because the markets are very volatile, so we are trying to stabilize it here in the Philippines.)
Marcos was in Ilocos to commemorate Marcos Day, a provincial holiday dedicated to the birth anniversary of his father and namesake, ex-president Ferdinand Marcos Sr.
“We really need new technologies, and that’s the part that institutions like MMSU, like PhilRice and all the other agriculture research universities, stations do all around the country, that’s the part that they play. They then should be able to give it to the government, the new technology to the government, and the government is the one who will take it from the laboratory, the rice field,” Marcos said in a mix of English and Filipino.
Marcos recently issued Executive Order No. 39 that put a price cap on rice to arrest the unsteady cost of the country’s leading food staple.
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