Salceda bets on fertilizers, agri as talking points of Marcos’s SONA

President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. will “almost certainly” touch on fertilizers for the agriculture sector in his maiden State of the Nation Address *SONA), Albay 2nd district Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda said Thursday, July 21.

“I think PBBM can score very quick and extremely useful wins as DA [Department of Agriculture] Secretary by focusing first on fertilizers. It is the most important short-term intervention,” Salceda said in a statement.

Marcos–who took on the mantle of Secretary of Agriculture–will give his first SONA as the 17th President of the Philippines on Monday, July 25.

Read:

https://mb.com.ph/2022/06/20/marcos-takes-charge-of-da/

https://mb.com.ph/2022/07/21/quick-facts-sona-2022/

Salceda, an economist, highlighted the urgent need for cheaper fertilizers amid the food crisis and rapidly increasing prices of food products, something he is certain Marcos will mention in his upcoming SONA.

“Fertilizers will almost certainly be mentioned…one of his quickest victories as Agriculture Secretary can be fertilizers. I commend his effort to pursue government-to-government procurement of fertilizers. That gets rid of a lot of middlemen margins,” the Bicol lawmaker said.

“The fertilizer price index peaked at 101.5 percent higher than last year’s prices. There are signs that prices are cooling down, because prices have been moving down consistently since April, but fertilizer prices are still at elevated levels,” he continued.

In his statement, he further added that Marcos should consider the release of fertilizer coupons as a means to assist farmers and increase produce yield.

“Apart from the G2G [government-to-government] procurement, I also strongly urge PBBM [Marcos Jr.] to release fertilizer discount coupons, backed by the national government and good as currency when buying fertilizers. We used this system heavily in the province of Albay, when I was governor. It will have immediate consequences to food yield during the ongoing rainy season planting time,” Salceda said.

“The tradeable coupons are very strategic at this point, because regardless of whether the farmer beneficiary actually uses them or trades them to another farmer, the end result will be that the discounted fertilizer will find its way into the land. And that will bring higher yields for key crops, while also helping address high fertilizer prices,” he explained.