Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship and Go Negosyo founder Joey Concepcion welcomed President-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s decision to head the Department of Agriculture.

“Many of our MSMEs are based in the agriculture sector, and the President-elect has expressed his intention to focus on our country’s small entrepreneurs,” he said. “This would be a chance to help both our farmers and our MSMEs.”

Concepcion said it would be a natural choice for the incoming President as he has always expressed his intention to continue the elder Marcos’s projects in the sector. “There are many programs that his father started that I believe can be revived and will redound to benefits for the country’s agriculture sector,” he said. “Masagana 99, the Food Terminal Inc. and the Kadiwa stores are only but a few of the projects that I believe can be revisited today,” he said.

“President-elect Marcos told us at our Kandidatalks series during the campaign season that he felt the pandemic exposed the weaknesses not just of our agriculture sector, but our whole food supply chain,” he said. “With hope, with the reforms he will implement, we will become more resilient and able to withstand future disruptions in our food supply system, such as that we experienced during the lockdowns and now with the Russia-Ukraine crisis,” he said.

In a statement, the President-elect expressed his intention to rebuild the value chain of agriculture, and that the agriculture sector, along with food security, will be a priority of his administration.

“Masagana 99 was quite a successful project, and there were several infrastructure projects like the Pantabangan Dam and Magat Dam that really helped Northern Luzon become a productive rice producer. The challenges that many of our agriculture-based MSMEs space is on productivity. I look forward to how our next President can help lift so many out of poverty,” he said.

“Our continuing efforts to mentor farmer-entrepreneurs through our programs like the Kapatid Agri Mentor Me Program will dovetail with the President-elect’s efforts to help both the MSMEs and the agriculture sector,” Concepcion said.