QUEZON CITY -- Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Secretary Conrado Estrella III has vowed to expedite the delivery of badly needed support services to ensure the continued productivity of farmlands awarded to agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) and discourage them from pawning or selling their farm.

Estrella said one of his major priorities is to keep the flow of food smooth and orderly since it is the best way to keep the prices of basic farm goods at an affordable level.

“Remember, when the supply of goods is abundant, the price is likely to go down,” Estrella said.

At a time when the prices of goods are going up due to high cost of oil products, the DAR chief said that keeping food supply to the market uninterruptedly would somehow help stabilize the prices, something that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is trying to emphasize during his meetings with members of his Cabinet and with other major stakeholders.

Earlier, Estrella directed DAR Undersecretary for Support Services Office Atty. Milagros Isabel Cristobal to prioritize the construction of roads that would connect bridges that were constructed under the “Tulay ng Pangulo para sa Kaunlarang Pang-agraryo” to the main roads, leading to the market.

A total of 140 bridges under the said project had already been completed, while construction of 29 others are on-going.

The DAR chief is also eyeing the construction of more post-harvest facilities to help keep farmer-beneficiaries from being shortchanged by providing them safe storage facilities where they can store their harvests when prices are low and sell them when prices are high.

Estrella observed that the lack of storage facilities makes farmers vulnerable as they are often forced by unscrupulous traders and middlemen to sell their harvests at a very low price instead of seeing them rotting in their backyard.

“We need to put a stop to this practice because it is one of the major reasons why prices of goods are going up as some traders have the nerve to hoard farm goods they bought at very low price to create artificial shortage, resulting in sudden upsurge of prices of goods,” he said. (DAR)