Agrarian Reform Secretary Conrado Estrella III has vowed to speed up the distribution of support services to farmer-beneficiaries of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) to ensure the continued productivity of awarded farmlands and discourage the farmers from pawning or selling their lands.
One of the agency’s major priorities is to keep the flow of food smooth and orderly since it is the best way to keep the prices of basic farm goods at affordable levels, he said.
“Remember, when the supply of goods is abundant, the price is likely to go down,” he added.
Amid the skyrocketing prices, he said to keep the unhampered food supply to the market would help stabilize the prices.
The DAR chief earlier directed DAR Undersecretary for support services Milagros Isabel Cristobal to prioritize the construction of roads that would connect bridges that were constructed under the ”Tulay ng Pangulo para sa Kaunlarang Pang-agraryo” to the main roads, leading to the market.
He said he is also eyeing the construction of more post-harvest facilities to help keep farmer-beneficiaries from being shortchanged by providing them safe storage facilities where they can store their harvests when prices are low and sell them when prices are high.
Estrella lamented that the lack of storage facilities makes farmers vulnerable as they are often forced by unscrupulous traders and middlemen to sell their harvests at a very low price instead of seeing them rotting in their backyard.
“We need to put a stop to this practice because it is one of the major reasons why prices of goods are going up as some traders have the nerve to hoard farm goods they bought at very low price to create artificial shortage, resulting in sudden upsurge of prices of goods,” he said.