Hard-earned money by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) could just be the key to solve the country’s perennial challenge of achieving food self-sufficiency and security, according to the the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
In its study, titled “Interrelations between Public Policies, Migration and Development in the Philippines” (IPPMD), the OECD recommended that the Philippine government should craft concrete policies and programs that could prove to Filipino migrant workers that the agriculture sector is worthy of their investments.
“Stakeholder interviews highlighted the fact that the agricultural sector is seen as one of subsistence living rather than one of business and investment opportunity. The main challenge for the Philippine government is, therefore, to make the agricultural sector more attractive to investors and to move from a standpoint where food security is not only about purchasing power, but also about investment and production,” the OECD said in its study published recently.
“The Philippines’s migration strategy should also integrate these dynamics so that migration can be a force for greater resilience in the agricultural sector; similarly, agricultural policies need to be crafted to ensure they influence people’s migration decisions in a productive direction. Such steps will help to ensure that current farming households remain interested and invested in the agricultural sector and new ones are drawn in,” the OECD added.
Citing the 2008 global rice crisis, the OECD noted that the economic transition of the Philippines is undertaking—from an agricultural to a more diversified economy—threatens the country’s food security, making it “heavily” dependent on commodity imports.
“In tandem, policy-makers should address rural and agricultural infrastructure, such as irrigation and farm-to-market roads, to make the sector more attractive for investment and employment,” the OECD said.
“At present more productive and higher-paying jobs are to be found elsewhere, and return migrants may be returning to urban areas instead of their rural households,” it added.
The OECD made three policy recommendations to encourage OFWs to invest their money in the agriculture sector: adequate labor market institutions; improving investment skills; and agricultural aid programs.
The OECD noted that “job search centers, training programs and contract enforcement mechanisms should be put in place in rural areas to ensure that agricultural households can easily replace labor lost to emigration, and to facilitate and accelerate the task of hiring labor in times of peak demand.”
“Farming households in areas of high emigration should also be targeted with agricultural technical support [e.g., for the use of new resistant crops, fertilizer, irrigation techniques] to help deal with the loss of labor, as well as a possible channel for investing remittances,” it said.
The government should also improve basic infrastructure, enhance investment capabilities of OFWs, and create incentive programs to “channel remittances and return migration toward investment in the agricultural sector, such as improving basic infrastructure,” according to OECD.
“Policy-makers should help households and return migrants use their remittances to diversify their activities—both within and outside the sector—through incentives and training,” the OECD added.
Government subsidies in agriculture would also ensure that Filipinos workers will continue “to deter emigration, as well as encourage more investmentin the sector,” according to the OECD.
The policy recommendations made by the OECD were derived from the findings of the survey it conducted to 593 agricultural households out of the 1,999 total households interviewed for the IPPMD report.
Bulk of the total agricultural households, around 63 percent, or 372 households, were engaging only with livestock rearing. Meanwhile, 115 households were engaged only in arable farming, while the remaining 106 families do both arable farming and livestock rearing.
One of the findings of the OECD study was that returning Filipino migrant workers help their households to diversify and possibly transition out of agriculture: Households with return migrants were more likely to run nonagricultural businesses.
The OECD study also found out that agricultural households that have benefited from subsidies, by relieving financial constraints on the household, have reduced need to emigrate and find new sources of income.
“Moreover, households with land title certificates are more likely to have members planning to emigrate, although actual emigration rarely materializes,” the OECD said.
Migration expert Jeremaiah M. Opiniano told the BusinessMirror that Filipino migrant workers do not invest in agriculture-related businesses as they deem the sector as “risky” and “unprofitable”, unlike other business ventures.
“Filipinos abroad and their families will not invest in farming and fishing because the returns are not as gainful and immediate as earning over a few hours work abroad. Should they invest, another family member will continue to work and earn abroad so that the remittance eases the risks to be faced by agriculture-related businesses,” said Opiniano, executive director of the Institute for Migration Development and Issues.
“Real property is for these Filipinos a ‘better investment’ because the property acts as a tangible ‘trophy of success’ for the Filipino migrant. Sadly, that view may not be the case for agriculture [not even a farmland, or a fishing ground, is a symbol of triumph],” Opiniano added.
Opiniano said the government should intensify its awareness campaign to encourage OFWs on possible investments in the agriculture sector.
“I also think the information on where to invest in the agricultural sector, or even which agricultural products can be invested on in Filipinos’ rural birthplaces, is missing. A rural locality’s business climate conditions can be fixed. As for the agricultural sector, at least a locality should put together information available locally on where best to invest in agriculture,” he said.
“Government, at the very least, must provide credible information on which agricultural ventures they can invest in. A program can also be done in which DA [Department of Agriculture] tells local government units’ agricultural officers to develop local agricultural investment portfolios for residents locally and abroad to see,” he added.
Opiniano and Ateneo de Manila University’s Eagle Watch senior fellow Alvin P. Ang have implemented a research tool called “Ricart”, which measures the extent of investments made by OFWs in their rural hometowns in relation to the area’s development.
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