CEBU CITY— Senator Imee Marcos who chairs the Senate Committee on Economic Affairs urged government to improve the distribution of agricultural produce from farmer to consumer amid forecasts of a global food crisis this year and suggested that the next administration must carry out a full-scale revival of the original Kadiwa system and expand a program encouraging young farmers to increase national food supply.
“A poor distribution system creates scarcity amid bounty, waste amid want. We need to redirect the flow of income from import cartels toward our local farmers and provide the lowest food prices possible for the public,” she said
She called today’s sporadic operation of the Kadiwa system a sorry version of its original intent, with no end to the stories of fruit and vegetable harvests left to rot.
"We have to rebuild what once was a reliable institution dismantled by one vindictive president, who sold its main storage and distribution hub - the Food Terminal in Taguig - to a favored tycoon,” Marcos said.The government-run Kadiwa system brought down food prices in the 70’s by buying directly from farmers and selling their produce without profit.
Marcos also hopes the next administration devotes a budget for the Young Farmers Challenge (YFC) program that she proposed in Senate Bill 884 shortly after becoming senator in 2019.
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