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Cash
crops are crops grown for money in developed countries
like those in the Americas and Europe.
In the
Philippines, perhaps due to the globalization of trade
and production and the kind of cashless society that it
has, cash has become not only a misnomer but also an
insult to an economy whose gross national product is
said to be the highest ever reached in Asia last year,
although its people are reeling in poverty.
While
money is grown on trees in
Europe and North
America, the same cannot be said anymore of the cash
crops that used to yield money for the Philippine
economy when times where not that hard a few decades
back.
Cash
crops such as coffee, cocoa, sugar cane, bananas and
vegetables, among other sources of food, are no longer
profitable to many Filipino farmers despite the high
prices they now command. Their soaring prices have made
food on the table almost beyond the reach of families
whose income status has simply become horrible, as
reported by the National Statistics Office, a government
agency.
Worse,
rice, corn and poultry have become favorite items for
importation for the failure of Philippine
administrations to grow its own food, owing perhaps to
the lucrative cash flows that importers derive from food
shortages that have become abundant in the country’s
setting.
In this
regard, Senate President Manuel Villar has urged
Malacañang to send to Congress a supplemental budget to
fund the agricultural programs proposed by President
Arroyo to abate the rise in food prices.
Villar
did not need to ask a supplemental budget from
Malacañang because he, the Senate and the House of
Representatives could have done that by themselves
knowing how critical the situation was.
In part,
Villar is also being criticized for his pet housing
projects traceable to private subdivisions, allegedly
owned by him and his family, that used to be
agricultural lands.
Last
week President Arroyo enumerated six schemes to boost
food production, namely fertilizer, irrigation and
infrastructure, education and extension, loans and
insurance, dryers and other postharvest facilities, and
seeds.
It is
agreed that it is never too late for a country to redeem
its lost glory as a rice and food granary, but the six
points raised by the President may take time to be
fulfilled.
Meanwhile, the people are hungry and angry.
Rice
prices in the country are soaring, that is, in the up
and up. Prices of pork, beef, poultry, root crops, other
vegetables, milk, canned foods, school supplies,
tuition, housing and repair, soft drinks, social needs
such as toothpaste, medicines and a host of many
commodities are skyrocketing despite the claim that the
inflation rate is steadily stable.
Mrs.
Arroyo’s six-point program entails a budget of P48.7
billion in emergency budgetary support, loans and grants
for the agriculture and fisheries sectors.
The
Commission on Audit should take a closer look at the
figures because there will be shenanigans ready to grow
money on trees and on the high seas of the Philippines,
including the smugglers who are now counting their
golden eggs even before they could be hatched.
E-mail: raulbvalino@yahoo.com.ph |
