Private sector recommendations to ensure food security submitted to Marcos

President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. met with the Private Sector Advisory Council (PSAC) on Friday to tackle the recommendations that aim to increase local food production and supply.
 
The Office of the President said in a statement that these include digital farming methods and strategies to improve the supply chain.

A review of the National Food Authority's policies and structure was also proposed during the meeting to enable the agency to operate as a logistics hub.

Marcos also tackled with the PSAC his plan for the institutionalization of the Department of Science and Technology's digital platform Sarai, which aims to provide stakeholders with site-specific crop advisories based on data obtained from the Diwata microsatellite.

He believes that through this program, farmers and fisherfolk will have real-time access to farm conditions, including weather, drought, and flood forecasts, as well as disease detection and infestation.

The President also directed the acceleration of replanting coconut trees and the distribution of seedlings as well as intercropping for better land use.
 
Marcos, who currently sits as the chief of the Department of Agriculture, aims to increase food production in the country and lower the prices of food products.
 
He also wants to fix the value chain in order to address short-term and long-term problems in the agriculture sector.
 
The President said on Thursday that he would only leave the post of agriculture secretary if structural changes were made to the department. — VBL, GMA News