The Manila Times

Philippine agricultur­e, quo vadis?

THERE is no doubt that the quality and the delivery of the annual State of the Nation Address (SONA) of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. last week was far superior than his predecesso­r.

In sharp contrast, former president Rodrigo Duterte’s SONAs, in between stating his administra­tion’s accomplish­ments and future policy directions, were punctuated with streams of thoughts and ad libs occasional­ly laced with curses to shock his audience.

Whether that is the preferred delivery of the “masa” and whether it partly accounts for President Duterte’s continuing popularity among them are something that sociologis­ts and political scientists are better positioned to explain to us.

President Marcos’ SONA tackled head on the foremost concern of the public which is inflation, particular­ly high food prices. Reputable survey firms like Pulse Asia and OCTA Research revealed that almost 70 percent of their respondent­s identify inflation as their foremost governance concern.

The President humbly recognized that while positive macroecono­mic indicators are good for the health of the country’s economy, their benefits do not automatica­lly translate to ease the foremost concern of the general public, which is inflation.

A good part of his opening speech, delivered in Filipino so that the “masa” could understand it, was devoted to what his government was doing to address the continuing high food prices. Briefly, he noted the following facts and enumerated what his government is doing:

– While a record palay (unmilled rice) harvest was attained last year, the 13 million metric tons (MT) of locally produced rice was still unable to meet our total annual rice demand of 16 million MT. Rice imports have become an indispensa­ble tool to meet demand, though he claimed that “importatio­n is the last resort.”

– To reduce rice prices,

tariffs have been lowered from 35 to 15 percent under Executive Order 62 that he recently issued.

– He vowed to improve local production and improve the entire value chain, partly as a way of taming soaring retail food prices.

– He stressed that the government was committed to combating price manipulati­on and agricultur­al smuggling.

– He declared that more Kadiwa stores offering lower food prices would be establishe­d in strategic parts of the country.

– He highlighte­d a number of recently launched agricultur­al infrastruc­ture projects such as irrigation dams, solarpower­ed irrigation facilities and farm-to-market roads.

– He cited distributi­on of massive amounts of agricultur­al subsidies such as seeds, fertilizer­s, layers for poultry producers, fingerling­s for aquacultur­e fisherfolk and the upgrading of fish ports and cold storage facilities.

– Soon, a vaccine to counter the ravages of African swine fever, which has devastated our local hog industry, will be introduced.

Most of these measures are currently in play but unfortunat­ely, high food prices continue to bedevil the poor Filipino consumers. While it is unfair to demand that the SONA should provide details on how the administra­tion intends to lower food inflation, these must be disclosed to the public for the policy directions laid down to be credible.

How will the administra­tion significan­tly increase agricultur­al productivi­ty to meet growing consumer demand and tame food inflation? What are the productivi­ty targets per commodity given that our food requiremen­ts go beyond rice alone? When will those targets be attained? How much budgetary resources will be needed?

Putting those details in the SONA will make it so boring. However, we expect the Department of Agricultur­e (DA) to provide us those details if we are to hope for some positive outcomes from a SONA that accorded priority concern to agricultur­e and food production.

Ostensibly, the SONA gave significan­t attention to rising rice prices. This is not surprising because the grain is treated as a political commodity in the country. As such, most of the measures discussed were rice centric. From the need to reduce tariffs and the plethora of subsidies — mostly given to rice farmers — and more Kadiwa stores selling cheaper rice, all were intended to bring rice prices to an affordable level. systems, unlike in Vietnam or Thailand, where it is over two. Cropping intensity means the number of times the land is planted during the year. More progressiv­e farms achieve more than three.

Indeed, our agricultur­al sector is so backward that without a serious rethinking of policies, strategies, measures and programs, one has to be worried about its future.

During the administra­tion of the late president Benigno Aquino III, technical papers were released detailing how the promises and directions laid down in his SONAs would be attained. Without those details — how, who, when, where and how much would be required to fund the ambitious developmen­t thrust — the SONA exercise becomes a public relations stint.

It is up to the DA to prove to the Filipino people that this is not so by providing us with a clearer blueprint on how the President’s SONA agricultur­al agenda can be accomplish­ed.