By EDU H. LOPEZ
The government has drawn up measures and strategies to cushion the impact of Expanded Value-Added Tax (EVAT) law on the prices of agricultural products.
One of the measures is the fast-tracking of development programs to accelerate the accessibility of products and increase productivity.
Agriculture and fishery products are exempted from EVAT. The implementation of the law is expected to generate some P80 billion for the government annually.
About half of the taxes generated by the Local Government Units (LGUs) will be allocated in the farm-to-market roads projects.
With the active participation of private ship owners through the promotion of roll-on roll-off (RoRo) transport system, a total of 243 ports will be accessed by farmers and fishermen to bring their products to the markets, Panganiban said.
For the upland farmers, a tramline technology has been implemented in four remote areas of the country.
The tramline system program will be under the Bureau of Post-harvest Research and Extension (BPHRE) in Buguias and Atok in Benguet province, Alimodian in Iloilo and Carranglan in Nueva Ecija.
It was designed to eliminate manual hauling of farmers’ produce using cables and pulleys to transport products in the mountainous areas to increase farmers’ productivity and income.
The agriculture department has prepared mitigating measures to lessen the impact in the agri-fisheries industry.
These measures include productivity enhancement, efficient logistics and distribution, direct market access and trading layers reduction, input reduction and substitution and policy interventions.
Other measures include improve genetic materials of crops, livestock, poultry and fishery products to ensure high yields and intensified disease prevention mechanism.
On logistics and distribution, the government will institutionalize the efficient distribution of agrifishery products from the production side on to the major demand center of Metro Manila.
On the cold chain program, the government will set up a pilot cold chain systems integrated with the marketing operations of the farmers.
The agriculture department will complement the efforts of other government agencies in the implementation of the Strong Republic Nautical Highway. It has embarked on food highway program to include promoting the use of RoRo system.
A pork production system will be set up to ensure safety, economy, efficiency, and environmental soundness in all aspects of the supply chain.
The agriculture department will provide a direct link for vegetable farmer to a processor who will buy the produce at a competitive price, thus minimizing involvement of traders which tend to buy vegetables at low prices.
In addition, consumers will now have the convenience of health, clean and safe vegetable preparations which will be made available year-round at affordable prices.
A task force on price and volume watch will closely monitor prices and supplies of livestock, poultry, meat and meat products together with the stakeholders.
Under the "tipid abono program," hybrid rice farmers will be given a discount coupon of P500.00 per hectare per season.
The government has also reinstated the duty-free importation of agricultural inputs under Executive order No. 376 and under Section 109 of agricultural modernization program.
The objective is to give agri-fishery stakeholders an access to cheaper sources of raw materials in the form of imported feed and ingredients.
