The Department of Agriculture (DA) has announced that it would focus more on tree farming nationwide this year as well as dredging of the country’s major rivers to address landslides, flooding and soil erosion, which were causing serious environmental problems to the agri-fisheries sector. In a statement, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel “Manny” Piñol said, “The shift of focus to these two activities was prompted by the spate of landslides and flooding that has been observed during the last few years.” Piñol added that even President Rodrigo Duterte, who visited flood-hit Bicol Region last week, blamed the increasing occurrences of landslides and flooding on the “loosening of soil.”

Gomez, E. J. (2019, January 10). DA pushes dredging of rivers, tree farming. The Manila Times, p. A7.