Agri summit seeks farming reforms

There is a need to transform traditional agri-fishery farms into inclusive, resilient and globally competitive agribusiness enterprises. #SulongPilipinas2019 #agrireforms

The Sulong Pilipinas 2019 Agribusiness Summit on 17 December will see public and private stakeholders in agriculture come up with the needed reforms for the farming sector.

The government-hosted event continues the series of consultative conferences between the Duterte administration and the private sector that started in June 2016 in Davao City when he was still a mayor.

According to Agriculture Secretary William Dar, the country’s public and private stakeholders need to continue working together in “transforming traditional agri-fishery farms into inclusive, resilient and globally competitive agribusiness enterprises.”

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said the holding of the Sulong Pilipinas for Agribusiness “is how public-private partnership works.”

“The government side delivers the medium. The private sector delivers content. It is a productive symbiosis,” Dominguez said.

The 10th edition of the dialogue will discuss a wide range of issues to produce actionable recommendations to help the government focus its efforts on implementing game-changing reforms in the agribusiness sector.

There will be workshops on poultry and livestock; grains (corn and rice); fisheries; coconut; high-value crops (cacao, coffee, rubber, banana, mango, and vegetables); infrastructure; and farm consolidation/clustering and agri-tourism.

Recommendations to accelerate the implementation of these actionable programs will then be presented to Duterte.

Dar and Dominguez, also invited to the event are other Cabinet members, among them Secretaries Roy Cimatu of Environment and Natural Resources, John Castriciones of Agrarian Reform and Eduardo Año of the Interior and Local Government.

Representatives from the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Go Negosyo advocacy group, Makati Business Club and Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc. have signified their participation in the event.

This collaboration between DA and DoF with private sector stakeholders is expected to make for a more robust agribusiness sector founded on Dar’s eight paradigms of the ‘New Thinking’ for agriculture, which includes modernization and industrialization, among other crucial elements in sectoral transformation.