Dominguez: Agri-sector needs more reforms

The rollout of productivity-enhancement programs will slash farmers’ crop production costs and increase their yields.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III has called on stakeholders in the agribusiness sector to think out of the box and come up with bold ideas to help the government wake Philippine agriculture from its stupor and finally transform it into a key growth driver to let the domestic economy accelerate “to a full gallop.”

Dominguez said at the opening of the Sulong Pilipinas Agribusiness Summit here on Tuesday that while President Duterte has demonstrated decisive leadership in passing agriculture-friendly reforms such as the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL), more policy initiatives are needed to enable the farm sector to reach its full potential on his watch.

The RTL has lowered the retail cost of rice for over 100 million consumers and established an annual P10 billion Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF), which is meant to boost rice productivity by providing farmers with modern farm machinery and equipment, high-yield seeds, low-interest and accessible credit, and skills training programs on farm mechanization and modern farming techniques.

A former agriculture secretary, Dominguez said the rollout of productivity-enhancement programs, which are currently being carried out by the Department of Agriculture (DA) and its attached agencies under the leadership of DA Secretary William Dar, will slash farmers’ crop production costs and increase their yields.

To encourage the establishment of more agribusiness enterprises and make the farm sector more attractive and viable for the next generation of “agripreneurs,” Dominguez said an urgent reform that needs to be passed by the Congress is the proposed Corporate Income Tax and Incentives Rationalization Act, which aims to gradually reduce the corporate income tax from 30 percent to 20 percent.

As agriculture secretary during the late President Corazon Aquino’s administration, Dominguez said he is aware that the government needs to work closely with stakeholders in this sector.

He said that is why the final edition of Sulong Pilipinas for this year gathered the country’s agribusiness stakeholders in this city to come up with actionable recommendations on how to jumpstart agricultural growth.