By Marron Joshua F. Mendoza
THE Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) said President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. has not achieved sufficient growth in farming output to keep up with the rising population.
FFF Chairman and former Agriculture Secretary Leonardo Q. Montemayor said in a statement that both agriculture and fisheries sectors remained stagnant relative to the population’s 1% growth rate, even though the Department of Agriculture (DA) has steadily been granted higher budgets.
Mr. Montemayor noted that despite the DA allocating 60% of its funding to the rice program, palay (unmilled rice) yields per hectare have only improved from 4.11 tons per hectare in 2022 to 4.14 tons per hectare in 2025, well below the DA’s five-ton target.
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