Feed mills using locally produced corn and other feed materials and other manufacturing and processing facilities using products from Filipino farmers and fisher folks should be given incentives and tax holidays by government.
This is the proposal embodied in a draft bill to be submitted to both Congress and the Senate to encourage local processors to use Philippine agriculture and fisheries products.
On Tuesday, Oct. 16, I presented this proposal during the meeting of the Philippine Partners for Sustainable Agriculture (PPSA).
My position is that our tax incentives offered to new investors which include tax holidays, are discriminatory to local processors and manufacturers.
For using local meat, chicken, corn, cassava, aqua and marine products and others in their processing operators, companies should be given similar incentives as foreign investors.
If passed into law, the measure is expected to encourage feed millers to use more local feed components, especially corn, and food processors to use locally raised chicken, hogs or cattle or aqua products.
This is expected to assure local producers of a good price for their produce thus stimulating greater agricultural and fisheries productivity.
In the long haul, this proposed measure will create more job opportunities and address poverty in the countryside.
The bill is now being drafted by the Legal Office of the Agriculture Department while the PPSA was tasked to provide inputs including a list of countries currently using the same strategy to support local producers.
(Photos of the PPSA meeting taken by Angelica A. Laurilla)
More Stories
Cotabato Eyes Huge ‘Halal’ Meat Demand
‘DV Savellano’ Model Bamboo Goat House
Practical Farming: Turn Used Plastic Containers Into Life-Time Laying Nests!