By Danilo P. Padua, PhD
The idea of crop production programming and crop rotation is an age-old thing. But if the plan is coming from an LGU executive, it must be worth more than if the relevant plan is coming from even the agriculture executives.
It carries more weight. After all, the LGUs are in the forefront of maintaining food security.
At least we know that some of our elected officials are thinking of the plight of our farmers, and by it, we can be more assured of food supply, without sacrificing further the hard work of our tillers.
The support of the current La Trinidad mayor, Romeo Salda, to the proposed local ordinance on crop programming and crop rotation is therefore very laudable. The ordinance according to Salda, is to prevent the oversupply or shortage of highland vegetables in the market. Now that he was elected into the Benguet provincial board, it is our expectation that he will be showing the same support at the provincial level.
To make such ordinance effective and serve its purpose is another matter though. It entails a huge effort and a carefully studied situation. Implementation is entirely another tier of block that must be overcome. The HVCDP of the Dept. of Agriculture should be a big help in planning for this.
There was a time that a problem on unwanted bolting of carrot plants in Benguet suddenly arose, swirling the minds of carrot farmers, as if hit by a right cross from the Pambansang Kamao, Manny Pacquiao. The province rightfully called for consultation with experts in the field (I was one of those invited as resource persons). Ultimately, the province came up with a “solution” that is very expensive for the seed traders, and hardly implementable.
In the present plan, the seed supply movement must be studied. Without this, a relevant approved ordinance will just be a useless piece of paper. Why? The pandesal mentality is still very much in vogue. If a farmer sees that another one hit the jackpot in growing a crop, he will plant the same the next season, then the others will follow suit. The result is a glut in supply of that crop. If seed supply is somehow controlled at the point of the seed supplier, there won’t probably be no oversupply. This is a difficult thing to do; a proper dialogue and consultation with concerned seed suppliers must be done to thresh out contentious issues, and to get their commitment. Anyway, a bankrupt farmer will mean also an opportunity loss to the suppliers since the farmer will not be able to buy as much the next time around.
The farmers normally have a mindset of not easily complying with what supposed experts will tell them. Ordinance or no ordinance, many of them will follow their gut feeling. That is well-known. I clearly observed these in the many regions in the country that I recently visited. The new technology is better than the old one, the plan is good, the proper and simple procedures or guidelines for implementation are laid out but many farmers just follow what they have been used to.
There should be a dedicated team to monitor the ordinance to make sure that things are in order. An ordinance like what we are talking about is not a one-shot deal. It takes some time for it to root or gestate and appreciated. It must be sustainable. These must be considered.
Last Feb of this year, there was supposed to be oversupply of onion in Luzon resulting to low prices. When I got to Cotabato city at the end of that month, I was told that onion bulb was selling from 5-10 pesos per piece. There was shortage in there. So, what we consider as oversupply or shortage in one area appear to be just artificial. It might be wiser then to study how a surplus produce in an area can be sold to another area with a shortage of supply of the same commodity.
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