By Danilo P. Padua, PhD
Last month, I placed in this corner the analysis of a respected Filipino agricultural/agribusiness economist about the dismal performance of the country in agriculture compared to our neighbors, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam. The analyses, based on hard data, clearly indicated that the Philippines is now lagging way behind our neighbors in terms of national and rural poverty, total factor productivity, and productivity, land productivity growth, crop diversification, and trade.
In my previous posts, I also indicated the creeping growth of the sector through the years but last year, agriculture grew about 3.9%, a welcome change. But ranged against the more than 7% growth of the countries mentioned, it paled in comparison.
It is really a disheartening reality that must be addressed pronto. But why are we lagging behind when we trained many of their agriculturists decades ago?
A former DA Asst. Sec., Dr. S. Salacup provided some answers to the above question when he guested during A 32nd charter day program of BSU. During his tenure at the DA, he saw that our poor performance in the sector was invariably spiked by relatively high poverty incidence, low government spending on agricultural research and development, poor infrastructure, uncertainty of agricultural production, and high postharvest losses. The food quality and safety were also a big concern.
According to him, some of the challenges currently facing the agriculture industry include: rapid population growth, depopulation of rural areas, low profitability in farming, lack of interest in farming technologies and climate change.
In the early 1990’s, the population of the country and that of Thailand were about the same. In 2016, ours shot up to 103M while that of Thailand inched only to about 68.9M. Compare those also with Malaysia’s 31.2M, and Vietnam’s 94.6M. Only Indonesia’s 261.1M was bigger than ours but its land size is more than 3x bigger than ours.
The problem imposed by a huge population however, may not be that easy to address because of the stance of a big religious group in the country. The other challenges could be addressed though with a lot of political will. Problem is, political interests actually pose one of the biggest stumbling blocks in the progress of the sector. This was, according to Dr. Salacup, exhibited in every turn during his tenure in the DA. Politicians, especially with the national reach, always wanted to have a slice of the meager budget allocated to the agency. But even local ones try to dip their fingers into the agriculture pie. I know of one local honcho who questioned the appointment of somebody as head of an important trading facility-only to find out that the politician is very interested to top it.
In short, however well-meaning any administrator the DA has, would not amount to anything since such interests invariably come into play at any time. It is therefore next to impossible to wait for institutional reforms from the DA. No wonder, our agriculture is in the doldrums. What the DA needs therefore is a non-politician to head the agency but who has the necessary experiences and the boldness to face politicians who have nothing in mind but their selfish interests. When will that be?
The former DA official believes that the academic community has a big role to play to “counter the myopic tendencies of political interests”. Maybe, as the official intimated, the academe together with farmers and consumers, agribusiness, LGUs, civil society, and research community should be more pro-active in pushing for [policy refrorms that could be very beneficial to the sector. This is because many of the problems are local in nature.
The export market potential is huge but we are hindered by lack of sufficient domestic supply, and inability to meet standards. A glaring example noted by Salacup is the mango export. The country is no longer the leading mango exporter to Japan. It is now Thailand because we can’t meet the strict standards of that importing country. Mentioned was also made of our vegetable exports to Japan, as well as shrimps and octopus exports to the European Union, being detained due to poor standards. Those are things that we can easily handle, but we choose to do it our way!
In the Cordillera, we can easily make our vegetable produce of export quality if we can put our acts together, lessen our selfish interests, and work for our common good.
Salacup encouraged BSU, especially the researchers to make important contributions in policy making, citing that the school is in a very special position as a center of excellence for research and expertise in high-value, highland type vegetable crop production, rural development, environmental science, resource management, cooperative management, economics and agribusiness management, etc. This should help make Philippine agriculture, survive, more competitive and sustainable.
Incidentally, 32nd Charter anniversary of BSU showcased some advances made by university personnel in an exhibited that lasted for at least three days. It would have been better if the exhibit was well-advertised so the community at large could have learned more of what the university had sdone through the years.
Dr. Feliciano G. Calora the university president, seem to be doing well as head. According to his constituents, he has established more international linkages especially with universities, had sent so many faculty and staff for advance degrees in accredited universities, developed some good programs along the four-fold functions of instruction, research, extension, and production. At the moment, there is a frenzy of building construction in the university. At least 8 important buildings are being constructed, and more are slated to start shortly. **
