Aside from the surging prices of agricultural goods, structural matters were identified by President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. as among the challenges faced by the Department of Agriculture (DA) in its mission to ensure food security in the country. Marcos, who heads the DA in a concurrent capacity, said that as prices of major agricultural goods like sugar, onions, rice, and vegetables are slowly going down, he now can focus on other pressing issues in the department such as converting it into a technology-driven organization. He stressed that by doing so, agriculture production would improve. "Are there major challenges? Yes, structural. We have to convert the Department of Agriculture into a hightech operation dahil (because) that’s the only (way) ngayon to increase production," Marcos said in an interview while he was in Camarines Sur for the distribution of government assistance to beneficiaries on Thursday, March 16. "So we have to bring the technology. The technology exists, andyan naman eh, magpaturo tayo sa iba iba. Dati tayo ang nagtuturo sa kanila, ngayon tayo ang mag-aral sa kanila. Pero matutunan natin ang pinakamaganda nilang bagong technique at estratehiya para sa pagsasaka at ipapasa natin yan sa mga farmer (we'll learn from others. We used to teach them, now it's time for us to learn from them. But we can master their best and newest techniques and strategies for farming so we can share it to our farmers)," Marcos added. By ensuring a steady production, the President said, the government will be able to continue running its Kadiwa program, where produce is directly sold from farmers to consumers at a lower price. He further said that "consolidation is the first big step" towards better food production in the country. "Hindi mangyayari ang lahat ng gusto natin mangyari kung hindi natin ma-consolidate ang mga pag-aari ng ating mga magsasaka. Hindi lamang sa pagsasaka pati para labanan yung swine flu, kailangan i-isolate natin (Everything that we want to do won't happen if we cannot consolidate what our farmers own. Not only on farming but also to combat swine flu)," Marcos said. The chief executive explained that backyards used for farming, for poultry, and piggery must be consolidated by the DA in order to control possible contamination when virus spread. "So there’s quite a few still major challenges that we have to face," he said.