PBBM eyeing fertilizer purchase deals with foreign governments

PRESIDENT Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos Jr. is eyeing to personally pursue bilateral talks with China, Russia and three other countries for the procurement of affordable fertilizers.

Marcos bared the plan to ad- dress the rising cost of fertilizers during his meeting with officials of the Department of Agriculture (DA) last Monday.

“They want to help us so they are approaching us. Then let us take advantage of that by asking them to give us fertilizers with a good price. That is the whole point of the G2G [government to government],” Marcos said in Filipino during his meeting with agriculture officials.

Marcos, the concurrent agriculture secretary said that among the countries he is considering for fertilizer procurement are China, Indonesia,

United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, and Russia.

He already asked DA to provide him data on the source of and price of fertilizers, as well as the department’s distribution plan during the planting season, which he will use during his talks with the said countries.

“I’m thinking it would be useful for us if I will write to all of them...and I’ll say that we are in the market to buy this volume of fertilizer,” Marcos said.

Last year, DA already announced its plan to import fertilizers, which it will sell at a subsidized price to local farmers who are struggling to cope with the rising cost of farm inputs.

Among the countries it approached was China, where it negotiated to buy urea at a price of $500 per metric ton.

It also proposed an additional P15-billion budget for the expansion of its fertilizer subsidy program for rice farmers as well as the implementation of maximum retail price on fertilizer products to make the farm input more accessible to its users.

Providing sufficient fertilizers to farmers, DA said, will be crucial for local farmers to boost farm productivity.

It noted some rice farmers have already resorted to reducing fertilizer application as it became too costly, which may result to lower palay production.

The government is targeting a 20.4 million metric tons palay production this year.