A vice chairman of the House Committee on Economic Affairs on Monday said the Duterte administration should focus on the agriculture sector if it wants to alleviate poverty in the country.
Liberal Party Rep. Josephine Ramirez-Sato of Oriental Mindoro made a statement after she expressed dismay over the poor performance of the agriculture sector during the last quarter of 2016.
“How can the government achieve its target of alleviating poverty if the agriculture sector is not growing?” Sato said. The Duterte administration is targeting to lift out of poverty 6 million Filipinos by 2022, or an average of 1 million a year starting in 2017.
Earlier, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said the Philippine economy grew by 6.8 percent in 2016, the fastest in Asia, beating China (6.7 percent) and Vietnam (6.2 percent).
During the last quarter, however, the country’s total economic production and performance, as measured by GDP, slowed down, recording only a 6.6-percent growth in the fourth quarter of 2016.
But Sato said the PSA data also showed that agriculture sector declined further by 1.1 percent from October to December 2016. The PSA said the decline was mainly due to two typhoons that hit the country during the period.
She said bad or unfavorable weather condition should not be an excuse for the sector’s poor performance.
Moreover, Sato said the Philippine economic growth could have hit the 7-percent growth target had it not been to the agriculture sector’s dismal performance during the last quarter of the previous year.
“The Philippines can do better by investing more in agriculture, by putting in place appropriate programs that will address the multi-faceted problems besetting the sector,” Sato said.
Intensify
She added that the Department of Agriculture (DA) should intensify programs that make farming profitable to encourage farmers to do business in agriculture, hence boosting production and contributing to the country’s growth and development “the way it should.”
“Climate change is a reality we need to face. We know what typhoons can do to our agricultural areas, that is why the DA should come up with ways to help farmers increase production, provide much-needed government subsidy and help enhance the capacity of farmers to become climate-resilient,” she added.
Sato said the Philippines should be able to enhance its food-production capacity to avoid overdependence on imported food and other food by-products.
Concrete plan
Meanwhile, Sato, Nacionalista Party Rep. Luis Raymund F. Villafuerte Jr. of Camarines Sur and Akbayan Rep. Tom S. Villarin asked Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol to come up with concrete plans that will protect farmers from the looming rice crisis when cheap, imported rice start flooding the market after June 2017, even if it plans to raise tariff on rice imports.
“With the lifting of the quantitative restriction on rice by June this year, expect importers to start bringing in cheap, imported rice that will kill the rice subsector, unless the government does something about it,” Sato said.
She added that farmers with small landholdings would not be able to compete against cheap, imported rice flooding the market without adequate government support in the form of seed, fertilizer and pesticide subsidy.
Sato said the agency should intensify capacity-building programs to help farmers survive and overcome the many challenges of food production.
“Support to farmers should no longer be ‘business as usual’. To help fight poverty, the government must allocate resources, develop and implement plans that will not only help farmers survive, but improve their lives and economic conditions,” she said.
According to Villafuerte, a government plan to finally cut QRs, or quotas on rice imports, and let private traders buy the staple from the world market should prompt the Duterte administration to first help farmers to boost their yields and cut their production and postharvest costs.
The QRs will expire on June 30. But Congress has to either repeal or amend provisions of Republic Act 8178, or the Agricultural Tariffication Act, to open the domestic rice market.
He said that if such a plan pushes through, “palay farmers will be at the losing end” because their produce cannot compete with cheaper rice imports.
“Is there any guarantee that the entry of cheap rice imports would lower the price of rice in the market? The government should provide safety nets to our farmers by, among others, helping them cut production, as well as distribution costs and other postharvest expenses,” Villafuerte added.
For his part, Villarin said it will be a great challenge for local farmers to compete in the market after the QR expiration.
“Piñol should provide us a concrete plan how he is planning to help our farmers,” Villarin said.
Image credits: Nonie Reyes
3 comments
Our DA and government has always been PRODUCTION ORIENTED. They all want to increase production, and in so many ways, both productive and not, have spent billions of pesos exactly to do just that, both in paper and in stated policies. I think that is where it is wrong. Why are IMPORTS doing and selling better than the LOCALLY PRODUCED? Because of LOGISTICS. Landing them imports at the national and regional ports, allow for the quickest and cheapest means to reach the buyers, who incidentally are located in the urban areas. The distribution agents for imports know that, so they choose the optimum and best ways to reach their markets. In the case of local production, both the raw and finished ones, how does one reach the market? If the infrastructures, both the hard and soft ones, and the policies and means of doing so, are not coherently adequate to address a problem, heretofore not properly conveyed and stated, then our probinsyano producers cant compete with the IMPORTS. MARKET REACH is a real issue and problem, and without the right infrastructures then it wont happen for our people. EVEN IF THEY INCREASE THEIR PRODUCTIONS, it does not translate to better incomes or even better sales, because the traders, knowing how difficult it is for distant farmers to sell their goods, will continue to haunt them with super low prices. THE BEST WAY to increase production among our farmers and producers, is to give them the best way to make higher profits. HIGHER PROFITS does not mean higher REVENUES IMMEDIATELY, it may just mean lowering the cost of doing business, production and LOGISTICS.
Indeed, there are many problems facing the Farmers and Fisherfolks. One is public transport since they can not afford to deliver their harvest to the market. How about allowing donations of transport Vehicles TAX FREE if for exclusive use of poor Barangays? There might be donors from Philantropists or rich Filipinos
willing to donate their used vehicles. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/feb45b016b5530ffb953efbe601f82672c9409f358fd567a7c7b8d8d9a798833.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c25fc272b49d1ecf44f685e218c8d99d9811d356f8f130ec1251ca1b45827140.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/20a356e95d44441f0b8d685f64026c81d587b16dd1e4344f3f04e57ade4886d0.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d4b54a9607b22cd8bd120c412085d38d974d57e7ff5101bd6e22fa32dfa7aeea.jpg
I agree in Increasing agricultural production but unfortunately, a lot of the benefits derived from modern technology increasing production benefits more the middlemen rather than the farmers themselves. Farmers rely so much on middlemen due to lack of market knowledge, financing etc. How can they get out of the cycle? On another note, I wish to see a government program that aims in addressing more of the losses incurred during postharvest. Just a quarter of the 30-40% postharvest losses could mean a lot to farmers nowadays.