Farm-market roads get Palace backing

President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. is set to sign a joint administrative order on the establishment of farm-to-market roads before the year ends, Malacañang announced on Tuesday.

The Office of the Press Secretary disclosed that the Marcos administration has made progress in the creation of FMRs following the approval of a national timetable after his meeting with agriculture officials.

"FMR has been approved. We have a national timetable," the President said during the meeting. "All of the agencies that are involved, departments that are involved will be signing by December… to approve the plan to construct FMRs."

The OPS said the joint order will lay down the guidelines to make all FMRs interconnected with other infrastructure projects to ensure efficiency in the delivery of services and enhance agricultural programs.

Those signing the order would include the agriculture, public works, interior and local government, trade and tourism departments.

As of October 2022, 43,223 kilometers had been proposed for the FMR projects, according to OPS.

There is a requirement of 131,410 kilometers of the country to cater to the 14 million hectares of production areas for agriculture and fisheries.