DA prepares farmers for Asean integration

CALASIAO, Pangasinan—Farm mechanization, irrigation and financing will be included in the farming sector’s road map next year to prepare farmers and the country’s agriculture and fishery products for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) integration, a Department of Agriculture (DA) official said.

Noel de Luna, chief of the international relations division of the DA, said the government’s intention was to lower the cost of production so farmers could compete in the international market.

De Luna was here on Tuesday as guest of the First Regional Agriculture and Fishery Network symposium in the Ilocos region.

Decrease farmers’ losses

He said that with farm mechanization, farmer’s losses would decrease and the cost of production reduced. At present, a Filipino farmer’s cost of production of palay is P11 per kilogram, which, he said, was very high compared to Vietnam’s P7 per kg.

De Luna said the DA was targeting to lower the production cost to P5 per kg for local farmers so they could be globally competitive.

A training on food processing would also be intensified to enable farmers to export not just fresh produce but also products in other forms like processed food, he said.

The government would look deeper into how irrigation fees could be reduced, he added. Gabriel Cardinoza, Inquirer Northern Luzon