Caritas Philippines urged the government to provide additional support to farmers amid the high prices of onions in the market.
The humanitarian and advocacy arm of the Catholic Church made the statement as prices of local red onions now ranged between P500 to P720 per kilogram, while local white onions are priced at P600.
“The government should provide financial incentives or subsidies to help our farmers grow more onions and lower the cost of production,” said Caritas Philippines President Bishop Jose Colin Bagaforo in a recent statement.
“This will make them more competitive with producers from other countries who are already receiving large subsidies and other forms of support from their government,” he added.
Bagaforo also emphasized the importance of building necessary facilities to improve the farmers’ productivity.
“Another thing that can be looked into is infrastructural investments that would improve the productivity and efficiency of onion farms,” he said.
“More cold storage facilities should be established to lessen the cost surplus of our farmers and meet the rising demand for agricultural products in the market,” he added.
For its part, the Caritas Philippines vowed to continue providing assistance to farmers.
“Caritas Philippines is helping more than a hundred farmers’ organizations at present through various initiatives like provision of farm inputs, capacity development, market linkage, social enterprise development, and savings mobilization,” it said.