|
SEN.
Edgardo Angara is prodding the government to extend
credit at lower interest rates to rice and corn farmers
in order to boost domestic production and help fill the
country’s rice shortage.
“There
is woefully inadequate credit for rice and corn
producers in the country, which creates an unhealthy
situation and makes for minimal production,” Angara said
in a statement over the weekend.
He
suggested that the Land Bank of the Philippines and
government financial institutions provide the
low-interest credit, even as “we must harness all rural
and development banks of all rice-growing provinces” to
complement the effort.
The
government, he asserted, must support the farmers by
lending directly to rice and corn growers at rates lower
than market.
A former
agriculture secretary under the Estrada administration,
Angara lamented that farmers lack the credit support to
upgrade their farm equipment, noting that “in many rural
areas it’s still the carabao that does the plowing.
This is exacerbated by the lack of infrastructure
development and irrigation.”
“Our
national irrigation systems cover only 33 percent [or
1.4 million hectares] of the 4.2 million hectares of
rice harvest area. Worse, of the 1.4 million hectares of
irrigated land, 700,000 hectares have fully functional
irrigation systems, while 400,000 hectares require
immediate repair and rehabilitation,” he added.
At the
same time, he underscored the need to revamp the
National Food Authority (NFA), saying such would
translate into more significant savings that can be
rechanneled as subsidy or food assistance to poor
Filipinos.
“One of
the recommendations of the Congressional Commission on
Agricultural Modernization [Agricom] on which the
Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act [Afma] is
based was the dismantling of the National Food
Authority. However, I am for keeping NFA but only for
its limited but important role of implementing the rice-
and corn-support policy, which serves the country’s
buffer stock in case of emergency and calamity,” Angara
said.
The
chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Food
argued that the NFA should give up its trade functions
to the private sector, which “can do a much better job.
If private rice traders are allowed to import and sell
rice without any restriction, the supply and price of
rice will likely stabilize. More important, smuggling,
corruption and hoarding will be eliminated.”
In its
review of NFA operations, his Senate panel discovered
the NFA’s projected accumulated losses in 2007 stand at
P48 billion and its outstanding loans at around P69
billion. “If the NFA continues to operate as it does
today, it is projected that in 2010 its accumulated
losses will hit P111 billion and its outstanding loans
will reach P136 billion. This uncontrolled and wasteful
expenditure of scarce public funds must stop.”
Angara
deems the 50-percent tariff on rice as too high,
prompting him to propose its reduction in order to make
rice affordable and available.
In a
privileged speech last week,
Angara also batted for a food-aid program, where a passbook given
to poor Filipino families may be used for buying rice at
a fixed price at designated outlets.
“To
target the most vulnerable sectors accurately, a
registry in each locality should be prepared, supervised
by the DSWD [Department of Social Welfare and
Development] in order to identify and locate families
that need the urgent assistance of the state. Wives and
mothers should be the holders of the passbook in which
the food rations that they would receive can be
recorded. In addition, distributors as well as retailers
will be given a rebate by the DSWD, the agency mandated
to help the poor,” the senator said. |
