Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar expressed his gratitude and appreciation to the OneDA family during the last day of the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) National Management Committee Meeting, on June 17, 2022. He also thanked outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte for his support to the DA, which brought forth achievements such as:

• record harvest in rice (19.96 million metric tons in 2021);
• record harvest in corn (8.3 million metric tons in 2021);
• sterling growth in poultry and other agriculture subsectors;
• exports of bananas and other high-value crops; and
• the National Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization and Industrialization Plan (NAFMIP) 2021-2030, which can serve as a guide for the next administration in determining and implementing near-term, medium-term, and long-term actions for the sector.

The OneDA family also came up with its proposed priorities for agriculture for the first 100 days of the new administration in order to attain food sovereignty in the Philippines—to name a few:

• prohibiting the conversion of prime agricultural lands, particularly irrigated areas;
• strong legal action against continued encroachment of government lands and properties;
• accelerating hog repopulation by increasing importation and production of hog breeders, raising the number of breeder farms, and collaborating with commercial hog raisers;
• strengthening the Kadiwa ni Ani at Kita and IsDA on the Go at the grassroots level;
• revisiting and improving data on fishery and aquaculture sector;
• tapping and capacitating local government units as implementing unit of DA devolved functions and initiatives;
• creation of a food logistics system to transport agricultural goods;
• collaborating with the Department of Trade and Industry to create policies on transport mechanisms for agricultural products; and
• encouraging youth involvement in agriculture. ###