President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has met with Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Alfredo Pascual to set out plans to make fertilizers affordable for farmers and improve their productivity.
Marcos wants the DTI to make sure that cheaper fertilizers would be made available for farmers, the Office of the President said in a Facebook post on Wednesday night.
The meeting was held at Malacañang Palace in Manila, based on the photos uploaded on the OP’s official Facebook page.
Marcos, in his official Facebook account, also said he met with Pascual in an effort “to help ease the farmers’ plight and reboot the country’s agriculture industry.”
“We want to revive the agricultural sector, that’s why we met with Secretary Alfredo Pascual of the Department of Trade and Industry. We want the fertilizers used by our farmers to be affordable,” he said.
The OP said Marcos continues to prepare “to secure the food supply in the country.”
In July, Marcos expressed his intent to pursue government-to-government (G2G) talks to address the increasing prices of fertilizers.
Marcos, who concurrently heads the Department of Agriculture (DA), said the government could avail of cheaper fertilizers through the G2G deals.
He is communicating with China, Indonesia, United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, and Russia for the country’s procurement of fertilizers.
Marcos earlier directed the agriculture officials to provide data on the source and price of fertilizers, as well as the DA’s distribution plan during the planting season.