Regulatory, infrastructure issues on agri sector need to be addressed

MANILA, Philippines — The government needs to address regulatory and infrastructure issues to attract investments in the agri-food industry, according to a panelist of a forum yesterday.

Department of Agriculture Undersecretary Deogracias Victor Savellano said during the Stratbase ADR Institute forum yesterday that this should give the country, particularly its agriculture sector, the much-needed boost in food production and ensure food security.

“The government wants to have coherent policies and definite answers to the stakeholders in agriculture. By having these, we hope to make them invest more. The regulatory matters have to be aligned to get the private sector to produce more food and ensure food security for the nation,” Savellano said yesterday.

In the same forum, Stratbase ADR Institute president Dindo Manhit emphasized the need to invest in the manufacturing sector, particularly in the local agro-industrial sector, to increase the country’s productivity and ensure food security.

The services sector has been the main driver for economic growth, but the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the sector’s weaknesses in the event of disruptions, he said.

“What could happen if the economy were less dependent on services and more on agriculture, forestry, and fishing, as well as industry? This is our basis for promoting investments in the manufacturing sector, specifically for the domestic market, in?the agro-industrial sphere,” Manhit said.

“This initiative will contribute to increasing the country’s productivity and provide the growing?domestic market with more affordable goods and essential commodities like food. This also strengthens our position in the global supply chain,” he said.

In his presentation, Foundation for Economic Freedom (FEF) fellow Fermin Adriano attributed the low agricultural productivity to the limited private sector investment in the agriculture sector.

“The limited private sector investment in Philippine agriculture, evident from the mere one percent engagement of establishments in the sector, contributes to consistently low farm productivity,” he said.

Adriano, a former DA undersecretary, said constraints to private sector investment in the agri-food industry include the perceived inadequate government support on mitigating risk, “outdated” and lack of awareness of incentives, high taxes, custom duties, and tariff rates, difficulty in obtaining licenses and procurement of raw materials, and poor infrastructure, among others.

To address these, he recommended the rationalizing and ensuring science-based and transparent regulatory measures, improving “ease of doing” business particularly at the local government level, and improving access to capital, particularly in procuring or installing new technologies for climate resiliency.

To increase productivity and market supply, DA assistant secretary for operations Arnel De Mesa said there is a need to solve the problem of logistics and distribution of agricultural products by building more farm-to-market roads and by ensuring that agriculture products are climate-proof.

Meanwhile, Stratbase ADR Institute COO and managing director Rupert Paul Manhit said there is a need to build more infrastructure projects through public-private partnerships (PPP) to modernize transportation and logistics systems for the efficient distribution of food.