Three years into the Marcos Jr. administration, the agriculture sector remains caught in a balancing act, as efforts to lower food prices for consumers have often come at the expense of farmers, whose livelihoods continue to be strained by policy shifts and market disruptions.

When President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. assumed office in 2022, many in the agriculture sector expressed optimism that the long-neglected sector would finally receive much-needed attention to address its persistent problems.

But who would blame them, since the chief executive himself assumed the position of Secretary of the Department of Agriculture (DA), determined to fulfill the promises he made during the campaign trail.

Just over a year into this rare dual role, Marcos passed the baton to fishing magnate Francisco Tiu Laurel, who now heads the Department and is tasked with carrying on the President’s goal of lowering the retail prices of food.

After a 2024 marked by adverse weather conditions and the spread of animal diseases, Tiu Laurel entered 2025 with a commitment to perform and do better.

In a country that ranks among the world’s top consumers of rice, doing better means lowering the price of the household staple.

In January 2025, the DA implemented a maximum suggested retail price (MSRP) on imported rice, which was initially set at ₱58 per kilo, then later adjusted to the current ₱43 per kilo in a bid to curb the soaring prices of the commodity.

This was followed by the declaration of a food security emergency on rice the following month, which granted the National Food Authority (NFA) the power to release buffer stocks, which were then sold by local government units (LGUs) and government agencies for as low as ₱33 per kilo.

But as prices remained stubbornly high, the DA made its most ambitious effort yet by attempting to fulfill Marcos’ most popular campaign promise: bringing the price of rice to as low as ₱20 per kilo, albeit with extra steps involved.

Tiu Laurel spearheaded the government’s ₱20-per-kilo program—now known as “Benteng Bigas, Meron Na!” or BBM for short—through a pilot run that started in Cebu and later expanded to all 82 provinces.

The program specifically sold the ₱20 rice to members of the vulnerable sector, with the rice sourced directly from farmers. The DA subsidizes the difference between the selling price and the set price of ₱33 per kilo, allowing the rice to be sold at a low cost for consumers.

During his State of the Nation Address (SONA) in July 2025, President Marcos proudly announced that the program has proven that the government can sustain the ₱20-per-kilo program without inflicting economic losses on farmers.

Despite this, the program is not without its detractors, as even Vice President Sara Duterte alleged that it was just a campaign ploy ahead of the midterm elections, further claiming the rice is unfit for consumption. Tiu Laurel, who rarely meddled in political affairs, said he was “deeply hurt” by Duterte’s remarks.

While the government’s effort to lower prices of the staple translated into real gains, the pursuit of an unsubsidized ₱20 rice in the market is still out of reach. As of Dec. 27, 2025, market monitoring in Metro Manila shows regular milled rice averaging ₱39.29 per kilo, well-milled rice at ₱45.08 per kilo, and premium rice at ₱50.57 per kilo.

As retail prices remained high, the opposite was the case for farmers, who spent the year struggling with declining prices of palay or unmilled rice. At one point, traders accused the ₱20-per-kilo program of causing the drop in prices, which Tiu Laurel responded to as “simply not true.”

What is true, however, is that the government’s import policy and the influx of cheaper imported rice have cut farmers’ incomes, with farmgate prices in some areas reportedly dropping to as low as ₱6 per kilo, well below the average production cost of ₱12 to ₱14 per kilo.

To address farmers’ concerns, a temporary suspension of rice imports was imposed for 60 days beginning September 2025, later extended to the end of the year. The country is projected to import about 3.5 million metric tons (MT) in 2025, lower than 2024’s record-high of 4.81 million MT.

It was an easy choice for the government to implement the import freeze, as the DA projects improved palay output for 2025 at between 19.61 million MT and 19.89 million MT, although lower than the initial estimate of 20.46 million MT, which would have been an all-time record.

Better production is expected in 2026 on the back of a renewed focus this year to modernize the rice supply chain through the construction of new irrigation systems, rice processing facilities, cold storage, and distribution of new farm machinery.

Still reeling from the impact of animal diseases, the government rolled out a series of policy changes to strengthen the livestock and poultry sectors.

Arguably, the most important of these was the passage of the Animal Industry Development and Competitiveness Act (AIDCA), which earmarks an annual budget of ₱20 billion under the Animal Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (AnCEF).

With livestock and poultry frequently facing budget limitations, AnCEF is poised to strengthen both sectors through modernization and repopulation efforts, which would be especially critical to restore the local hog industry to levels it once had before the spread of African swine fever (ASF).

Tiu Laurel has said that increasing the country’s swine population would help lower market prices of pork. But as an immediate measure, the government opted to impose an MSRP on the protein to temper prices.

On Dec. 5, 2025, the DA started imposing a price limit of ₱370 per kilo for pork liempo (belly) and ₱330 per kilo for both kasim (shoulder) and pigue (ham). This is the second time such a policy has been applied to pork cuts, after the initial MSRP earlier in the year was suspended due to low compliance among retailers.

While there were suggestions to enforce an MSRP on eggs back in April 2025 due to a brief uptick, prices of eggs and chicken remained stable throughout the year. This is likely to continue in the year ahead, following the approval for commercial use of the country’s first vaccine against avian influenza, or bird flu, in August last year.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is expected to give the green light on the commercial use of the vaccine against ASF by the first quarter of 2026, with oversight of animal health products soon fully transferred to the DA in line with AIDCA.

Based on DA monitoring, ASF remains active in 31 barangays across seven provinces as of Nov. 28, 2025. Bird flu, meanwhile, is present in 142 barangays in 10 provinces as of Dec. 12, 2025.

To prevent further harm to local industries, the DA has actively implemented import bans on territories with active cases of animal diseases, including Spain, Belgium, Japan, and Taiwan.

An even tighter monitoring system could be on the horizon after the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) recently warned that peste des petits ruminants (PPR), a highly contagious disease that could wipe out the majority of sheep and goat herds, has been detected in neighboring Southeast Asian countries.

For now, the government is taking a more flexible approach in biosecurity, having adopted a regionalization scheme in November 2025 to allow infection-free areas of ASF-affected countries to continue shipping pork products to the Philippines, replacing the previous country-wide ban, which has been flagged for being inconsistent with global standards.

BAI data showed that meat imports during the first nine months of 2025 reached 1.18 million MT, up 13 percent from 1.04 million MT during the same period in 2024. Pork accounted for more than half of the total, with 632,991 MT.

To keep prices of other equally critical commodities stable, the government relied on stronger production to ensure steady supply and prevent sudden market spikes.

For sugar, more stable prices were seen last year due to stronger production, with data from the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) showing the country’s raw sugar output for crop year 2024 to 2025 reached 2.08 million MT, higher than the original forecast of 1.78 million MT.

While SRA projects the next crop year to produce only 1.92 million MT due to potential sugarcane infestation and weather disturbances, it remains confident that local production will be sufficient to meet domestic demand, enough to extend the import ban until the end of this year.

Local milk production is also on the upswing, reaching 30.59 million liters from January to September 2025 compared to 24.44 million during the same period in 2024. While local output only accounts for a mere 1.17 percent of the country’s total demand, the development of new stock farms is poised to increase the contribution.

The increase in production of agricultural commodities earlier lifted the value of the country’s agriculture and fisheries production by 2.8 percent to ₱408.94 billion in the third quarter of 2025, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

However, it is important to note that not every commodity benefited from stronger production, as onions recorded the highest growth at 77.3 percent in the period, yet prices have climbed to ₱300 per kilo.

Tiu Laurel earlier acknowledged that onions were among the hardest commodities to control in 2025, largely due to alleged hoarding and price manipulation.

The DA has since implemented a price cap of ₱150 per kilo for imported red onions, and ₱120 per kilo for white onions. It also introduced a price ceiling for carrots at ₱120 per kilo.

As the administration grappled with a massive corruption scandal in public infrastructure that reverberated across the economy, the DA faced its own challenge in ensuring the integrity of farm-to-market roads (FMRs).

Inspired by investigations into flood control projects, Tiu Laurel ordered an audit to determine lapses in the country’s FMR network, especially since these are vital for farmers to transport their produce directly to markets.

As of now, the DA has found five substandard or non-existent roads, all in the province of Davao Occidental. Two small-time contractors were identified as culprits behind these projects, both of whom have since been blacklisted.

In 2026, the DA will begin handling the development of FMRs, after it was transferred from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH). Apart from an internal watchdog unit to promote transparency, the agency plans to bid out the projects by province to attract major players in the construction industry.

The agency expects a budget of at least ₱32 billion this year to build some 2,600 kilometers (km) of FMRs, meaning there would still be a backlog of roughly 58,000 km that needs to be built, based on government estimates.

With the new year, there are no indications that the agriculture sector will move beyond the balancing act it is teetering on. After all, every policy decision hinges on making the right move at the right time.

For instance, the DA is planning to implement quantitative restrictions (QR) on rice imports this year in an effort to protect farmers as higher production is anticipated. But this is on the condition that everything goes according to plan, from the weather to the yield.

Rarely, if ever, has the sector been defined by predictability.

Because of uncertainties beyond the government’s control, Tiu Laurel defined 2025 as a challenging year for his Department, something likely to continue into 2026.

“Looking back, it’s tiring, but now that it’s December, everything seems to be okay,” Tiu Laurel said in an interview before last year ended. “And you can see that when problems come, we fix them in a very timely manner. Of course, we all hope that it will be faster, but we’re trying our best to serve the people faster.”

“I think what’s important is that we work hard, with the whole team focused on addressing the situations as they come. And if possible, even before it happens,” he added.