Joy Orzales

Washington called on President Duterte to liberalize agricultural trade between the Philippines and the United States by reducing the barriers to imported farm products. In the 2018 National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers of the US Trade Representative (USTR), Washington pressed Manila to make the concessionary rates under Executive Order 23 permanent. The

  It was in May 2014 when former President Benigno S. Aquino III decided to transfer the supervision of four agencies attached to the Department of Agriculture (DA) to the Office of the President (OP). Removed from the supervision of the DA were the National Food Authority (NFA), the National Irrigation Administration, Philippine Coconut Authority

  THE Department of Agriculture (DA) has announced that the country has achieved a 103-percent self-sufficiency in yellow corn production last year, the first in more than two decades. Quoting a report from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol said gross yellow corn output in 2017 reached 5.811 million metric tons

Indonesia has won an appeal against the EU in a dispute over the bloc’s anti-dumping duty on biodiesel, the Ministry of Trade said in a statement on Wednesday (21/03). The European Court of Justice, the EU’s highest court, ruled that the bloc must do away with anti-dumping duties of between 8.8 percent to 23.3 percent

The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) extends substantial support in boosting farm productivity.  Technology-sourcing trips and technology-matching sessions abroad are organized by AVA to enable local farmers to learn from other countries’ best practices, and partner with solution providers and technology developers. For instance, a recent technology-sourcing trip in Norway exposed Singaporean farmers to the

A new type of banana, coined as Mongee, has been developed by a Japanese farmer named Setsuzo Tanaka, a technical development manager of D&T Farm in Okayama, Japan. Mongee banana has an edible peel and was invented by using an innovative deep freezing technique. It is made using “freeze thaw awakening,” a new pesticide-free cultivation

Agriculture is facing the same challenges in worldwide.  These include water scarcity, limited farmland, shrinking labor, chemical use, increasing demand for protein, and food loss. Technology, particularly information technology, has encouraged the youth to engage in the farm sector to address the problem of aging population in the sector.  Companies are also starting to engage

Taiwan plans to ban single-use plastic drinking straws in fast food chains from 2019. Environmental Protection Administration, Minister Lee said today the EPA plans by 2020 to also expand a restriction on free plastic shopping bags to all retail stores that issue uniform invoices while imposing a blanket restriction against offering plastic bags at all