Farmers and fishermen fear the worst if more imported food will enter the Philippines next year, asking the government for a more pro-producer policy when it comes to food security and availability.
In a briefing hosted by food security Tugon Kabuhayan, Raul Montemayor, national manager at Federation of Free Farmers, said that local food producers, especially farmers, are not better off next year amid continuous importation and rising input cost.
“Next year will be worst – the production is going down and the production cost is going up. Unless fertilizer prices will normalize, things will somehow get better. But then the price of gasoline is also affecting the agriculture sector greatly. So the farmers’ problem would be: high and low due to importation,” Montemayor told reporters on Monday, Dec. 13.
Philippine Tilapia Stakeholders Association President Jon Juico agreed with Montemayor, adding that a lot of fishermen and aquaculture players are now being discouraged to keep on producing.
“If next year, there will be more importation then we will struggle further. We are very discouraged right now. We share the same sentiments with farmers,” Juico said.
In the Philippines, unimpeded rice importation is allowed, thanks to Rice Tariffication Law (RTL), while the Department of Agriculture (DA), through the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), is allowed to issue Certificates of Necessity to Import (CNI) for fish during closed and off-fishing seasons or during the occurrence of calamities.
Talking about the effects of the RTL among farmers, Montemayor said that the RTL opened the door for unlimited imports and caused wholesale rice prices in the country to plummet.
“There is no significant improvement in production volume, yield, cost of production, and competitiveness despite support from Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) and tariff proceeds. We haven’t seen any significant changes since the RTL was passed. In the two years that the law came into effect, it resulted in a P56 billion pesos loss for our farmers. This should’ve lowered the retail price and passed the savings on to the consumers; instead, the importers and traders pocketed the difference,” Montemayor said.
“The adverse impact of RTL to our farmers far outweighs any gains of consumers. Pro-import policy and consumer bias by our government has further exacerbated the problem,” he added.
Rene Cerilla, legal and policy advocacy officer of Pambansang Kilusan ng mga Samahang Magsasaka (PAKISAMA), lamented that farmers have sacrificed so much and suffered financial losses while the retail price of rice has not decreased.
“We are not saying to get rid of RTL completely but to revise the law so that it would benefit the local farmers. Nowadays we are forced to sell our lands in order to pay off our debts. Our agricultural lands are being converted to industrial use instead of food production. The government doesn’t realize that without farmers, we are risking the country’s food security. Lack of food and malnutrition will make poverty in our country worse,” he furthered.
For his part, Prudenciano Gordoncillo, a professorial lecturer at the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics in UP Los Banos, suggested diversification as a long-term solution to the plight of farmers.
“As a developmental economist, my suggestion is that we should look at this in the long-term and find alternatives. We focus too much of our attention and resources on rice. Our farmers should diversify and cultivate other crops. For example, corn is a good option. Corn used to be the primary source of carbohydrates in Visayas and Mindanao, then it was replaced by rice. But rice is harder and more expensive to produce than corn. Nutrition-wise, corn, cassava, gabi, and rice are the same. They are all carbohydrates. We shouldn’t just rely on one commodity,” Gordoncillo said.
Poverty data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) shows that poverty incidence occurs mostly among farmers and fisherfolk.
“Our sustainability is in jeopardy if our own farmers and fisherfolk are pushed down further to poverty. It is critical to act with foresight when it comes to our food security and sovereignty. We should not be food-dependent to foreign countries,” Tugon Kabuhayan said.