New Agriculture secretary, William Dar, graced the 6th Regional Organic Agriculture Congress Cum Farmers’ Forum held at BAPTC last Sept 20. Dar also happens to be the newly-designated cabinet officer for CAR.
The first regional congress was organized by BSU in 2008 and was held in its main campus in La Trinidad.
“I support the growth of organic agriculture in the country, especially for CAR. However, don’t make it like a religion. It is a specialty agriculture, thus it has a niche market”. Dar categorically stated
“Using organic inputs enhances the microbial ecosystem of the soil, ensuring that plants will have the necessary nutrients, thus improving and sustaining soil health,” the DA honcho explained. He added that the soil’s organic matter content in the country has significantly dropped from about 10-15 percent to only 1-2 percent, drastically reducing its productivity potential.
According to the secretary, however, there are researches worldwide that shows this specialty agriculture can’t fully feed the burgeoning world population. He therefore suggested employing a more practical and realistic farming system of Good Agricultural Practices to produce more food and income for the farmers. GAP would necessarily entail judicious and sparing use of inorganic inputs together with organic inputs. With it therefore, the environment is better safeguarded for the future.
The DA chief took the opportunity to briefly dwell on DA plans as well as shed light on the palay price and African swine fever problems. He was happy to note that of all the gatherings of this kind that he had attended so far, the congress had the most number of mayors in attendance.
Governors Melchor Diclas of Benguet, Bonifacio Lacwasan Jr. of Mtn. Province and Jerry Dalipog of Ifugao led the various provincial delegations that attended the congress and farmers’ forum.
The rice tariiffication, according to Dar, actually decreased inflation from 6% to 3% which is one of the immediate effects of the law. He added though that this benefited only the consumers but not the farmers. Somehow, it depressed the price of palay. To cushion such adverse effect, he talked to big businesses for partnerships.
San Miguel Corporation committed to be involved in rice value chain– for better competition against entrenched so-called rice‘cartels.’ Mindanao Grains in Isabela, the biggest drying and milling facility in the country, also committed to the rice value chain. The secretary also talked to governors para magnegosyo din ang probinsya. At least 30 governors committed to the program. Landbank also continues to provide loans to the farmers allocating anew a PhP10.0 B loan facility to farmers. An additional PhP 1.0 B loan was made available to Isabela farmers. Requirements for the loan were simplified and made easier to comply with, so farmers will have better access to it.
Sure Aid loan assistance of PhP2.5B from the Agricultural Credit Policy Council, according to Dar, was also programmed for farmers with one hectare or less farm areas. All the produce of farmers who will avail of it will be bought by NFA.
Rice tariffication opened the floodgates of almost unrestricted rice importation. The plan now is to impose 35-70% tariff if rice comes from ASEAN countries; it is 50-100% if it comes from other countries.
Dar mentioned that NFA has 3.4 million bags of imported rice in its storage. He ordered the agency to sell all of them then roll over the revenue so it could buy more rice from the farmers. This will enhance the capability of the agency to procure palay from the farmers. Since NFA has about PhP 7B procurement fund, it will amount to PhP21B if rolled over 2x a year. The aim of tariff imposition and rolling over of the fund is to stabilize rice prices in the market to about PhP 32-35/kg.
The NFA will buy dried palay from the farmers for PhP 19.0/kg; PhP15-16.0/kg for wet which is like that of Vietnam and China. In effect, the government will subsidize rice famers by about PhP 2.O/kg.
The African Swine Fever is another problem that the new DA administration is grappling with. Dar immediately talked to swine industry players on his assumption to the DA helm last Aug. 5 to find solutions to the problem. He narrated that ASF started in Africa, spread to other places, then got to the Phil via tourists and balikbayans bringing with them pork products from infected areas. Dar debunked the rumors that the Philippines is now the number one ASF-infected country in the world, saying that the country culled just a little more than7 thousand pigs
as of last week while China already culled more than one million heads
ASF was first diagnosed and reported in the country last May, with the second report submitted last July. Former secretary Manny Pinol was supposed to have requested a budget to fight the disease but nothing came out of it. However, a budget of PhP78M for the purpose was released around second week of Sept.
CAR is not affected by ASF. A government team is working round the clock to eradicate the disease, while swine growers have immediately instituted precautionary measures to prevent ASF from contaminating their production areas.
Upon assumption into office, Sec Dar immediately met with World Bank and Asian Development Bank Officials for stop gap measures to solve current problems.
This resulted, among others, in continuity of projects that were about to end such as the CHARM Program in CAR. For one, World bank would infuse additional US$300M to the Philippine Rural Development Project but with the addition of an agribusiness component of the program.
During the press conference, concurrent with the organic congress and farmers’ forum, Governors Diclas of Benguet, Lacwasan of Mtn. Prov., and Dalipog of Ifugao took turns in airing their aggie concerns. They were helped by some of their mayors present.
While some of the concerns were immediately responded to, some of them are work in progress. The secretary made clear though that LGUs must do their share in providing solutions. Some of the proffered plans/solutions include the need to find suitable crops to be planted in certain areas; identification of areas for agriculture, reforestation and others – the carrying capacity of the area must be considered; comprehensive land use programs should be in place; strengthen farmer coops/associations; take leadership positions and economic enterprise farm models.
Being studied at the moment is the giving of free insurance to the farmers, to encourage investors in agriculture
Sec Dar laid bare his general plans to grow a vibrant aggie sector for the next three years. He noted that the country’s aggie sector grew by an annual average of only 1.8% in the last 10 years. Considering that our population grew by 1.9% a year, the current growth is not enough to sustain our food needs. His modest general growth plan for the sector is 2% growth rate for his first year in office, 2.5-3% for the second, and about 3.5% for the third year
“The above targets can be attained if we help each other. Mahirap ang trabaho ng Secretaryo pero kaya ito kapag tulong-tulong tayo,” Dar intoned.** By Danny P. Padua
