BATAC CITY — A joint resolution that authorizes President Rodrigo Duterte to create a task force to revitalize the country’s garlic industry is gaining headway at the 17th Congress through the initiative of the Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU) and support of seven development agencies and four provincial governments.
Proposed by MMSU officers Dr. Prima Fe Franco, Junie Bucao, and Samuel Franco, the resolution, now in the hands of Rep. Lord Allan Velasco of Marinduque, aims to arrest the present plight of garlic which is experiencing a dramatic price increase in the local market and the reported decrease in local production in recent years.
MMSU president Shirley Agrupis said one of MMSU’s roles in the task force is the efficient operation of its Garlic Research Center which undertakes garlic applied research and development and location specific studies in Ilocos Norte, and the production of true-to-type foundation planting materials for the local farmers.
The Congress is now trying to annually allocate funds in the budget of MMSU under the General Appropriations Act (GAA) specifically for basic garlic research and development. For three years, the project shall have a total budget of PHP57.5 million.
The proponents said such move was done to address the garlic industry’s numerous problems as production has not improved significantly during the past decades that resulted in farmers’ low profitability.
Low production level has encouraged the importation of the commodity.
“To protect the industry, certain tariff and non-tariff barriers were imposed and these have resulted to smuggling,” the proponents said, adding that these problems have reached the Senate and the House of Representatives which led to their committee hearings.
Once approved, one of the task force’s mandates is to develop a mechanism to include garlic as a component of an alternative farming system.
Aside from MMSU, the agencies involved in this effort are the Department of Agriculture (DA), Department of Budget and Management (DBM), Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), Department of Science and Technology (DOST), Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), University of the Philippines in Los Baños (UPLB), and the provincial governments of Abra, Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur and La Union. (PNA)
