President Rodrigo Roa Duterte signed the Sagip Saka Act which will establish enterprise development program for farmers and fisherfolks in order to increase productivity and improve welfare.
“In Republic Act No. 11321 or the ‘Sagip Saka Act,’ the government will extend assistance to farmers and fishermen by improving their production and productivity, enhancing access to credit grants and crop insurance as well as improved technologies, among others”, Manila Bulletin report stated.
The law also signified that national and local government agencies are mandated to purchase agricultural and fishery products from accredited farmers and fisherfolk cooperatives and enterprises.
The law stated that it aims to obtain sustainable modern agriculture and food security by helping the agricultural and fishing communities.
This can only be done through “comprehensive and holistic approach in the formulation, coordination and implementation of enterprise development initiatives, consolidating the roles of different government agencies involved in farmers and fisherfolk enterprise development, and intensifying the building of entrepreneurship culture among farmers and fisherfolk”.
It is important to note that agricultural extension services, skills development, provision of production units, equipment, facilities and infrastructure for production and post-production activities; improvement of access to financing; provision of access to improved technologies through research and development; provision of business support and development services such as marketing and networking, are assistance provided by the program.
Apart from assistance, the program also include incentives.” Certain tax incentives and exemptions such as exemption of gifts and donations of real and personal properties for donor’s tax”.
Respectively, report also highlighted that “the local government units will also exempt structures, buildings and warehouses for storage of farm inputs and outputs from real property tax provided the value of the property does not exceed PhP 3 million”.
Source: Duterte signs Sagip Saka Act