Marcos to DA: Buy Fertilizer and Seeds NOW — Stop Waiting Until Planting Season When It's Too Late
President Marcos just told the Department of Agriculture something that, honestly, should have been obvious all along: stop buying fertilizer and seeds at the last minute. Speaking at the 2026 National Confederation of Irrigators Associations assembly in Quezon City on Tuesday, Marcos ordered Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. to front-load procurement of farm inputs well before planting season.
"I told them to buy early so that when planting season comes, everything is already there," Marcos said. He warned that last-minute procurement — especially of imported supplies — could result in months of shipping and inland transport delays before the goods even reach farms. Pre-positioning stockpiles, he said, would allow faster distribution and cushion farmers from price spikes.
Former Agriculture Secretary William Dar backed the strategy, calling it "sound risk management." He said early procurement wouldn't necessarily fuel inflation — if paired with proper agricultural practices, it could actually boost productivity and stabilize supply. The administration is also pushing to modernize the National Irrigation Administration with a command center for real-time telemetry and satellite weather monitoring.
Not everyone's fully convinced, though. Jayson Cainglet of the Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura pointed out that farmers are always blamed for food inflation when the real culprits are distribution markups and middlemen margins. He supports early distribution but wants alternatives like vouchers so farmers can buy what they actually need instead of getting one-size-fits-all packages from the government.
Former Agriculture Undersecretary Fermin Adriano added a reality check: centralized procurement assumes an efficient bureaucracy that can accurately forecast demand, buy at competitive prices, and store goods properly. "This is under the assumption that the bureaucracy is efficient," he said — and well, we all know how that usually goes. Good intentions lang, kulang pa sa execution.
Source: BusinessWorld Online
