AVANT GARDENER
Yvette Tan
The agriculture sector is in a weird state. Not enough Filipinos are worried about the declining industry and its implications on the nation’s food security, yet everyone can feel — and complains about — the rising prices and lack of supply of certain food items, though many would still like to attribute these to external circumstances such as the Russia Ukraine war, refusing to see the lack in our agriculture industry.
We don’t even have to compare ourselves to our more successful neighbors to see that there is a need to overhaul the way our agriculture systems are structured, as well as the mindsets of everyone involved, which means every Filipino, because anyone who eats or drinks is automatically part of the agriculture system.
At the first Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food, Inc. (PCAFI) roundtable held earlier this month, aside from laying out the five-point plan that the organization believes will be a good first step in revamping the industry, PCAFI President Danilo Fausto also mentioned a few points that need to be addressed as soon as possible to help secure the country’s food future.
Increase corn production. The Philippines is so focused on rice production, sometimes to the detriment of other crops like corn. “We have a problem with corn . If we solve the problem of corn, then we solve the problem of poultry and livestock,” Fausto said, citing the need for machinery for post-processing, as well as better assurances for corn farmers that their harvests will be bought. “Let's give them a chance to make money.”
Make fingerling production a domestic industry. About 70 percent of the fingerlings used in local aquaculture are imported. This means that there is a huge opportunity for local fingerling producers. “Bangus fry, tilapia fry, vannamei, mud crab — we are importing all of these fingerings. Let’s produce these fingerlings locally,” Fausto said. “Let fingerlings be produced in the backyard, like what they’re doing in Vietnam and Thailand.”
The need for more cooperatives.
Farming cooperatives give small farmers the chance to band together as a collective platform which can help them achieve scale, secure buyers, share processing facilities, streamline marketing, negotiate deals and terms, professionalize farm businesses, and so on.
Other sectors
“We are asking… the President to create a Bureau of Agricultural Cooperative inside the Department of Agriculture (DA) so that we can establish cooperatives,” Fausto said, citing an example where business owners who work with small farmers are penalized because their suppliers are unable to provide receipts, which are required by the BIR. “Let’s organise them and register them and teach them proper governance,” he added.
Atty. Elias “Bong” Inciong, president of the United Broiler Raisers Association, the biggest chicken producers organization in the country, addressed the question of a chicken shortage. He started by comparing 2022’s chicken shortage with 2003’s (which, in the industry, didn’t count as a shortage), adding that “in 2003, there was no ASF (African Swine Fever), there was no Covid, there were no disruptions in the supply chain, no Ukraine war… That is a critical difference.”
“Based on a higher standard, meaning overall food supply, then you can say, just to play it safe so that no one will be complacent, especially government, we might as well say we are in a very challenging situation, if not a shortage, in the next two quarters if we do not get together and address this thing,” Inciong said.
Gregorio “Joji” San Diego, chairman of the Philippine Egg Board Association and the United Broiler Eggs Association (UBRA), addressed the speculation of eggs reaching ₱15 per piece, said in Tagalog, “I don’t think that will happen because if you compute it, one kilo of eggs is around 16 pieces, and if one kilo of eggs costs ₱240, it’ll cost more than a whole chicken… I don’t think that’ll happen.”
Edwin Cheng, Agriculture sub-committee chair for livestock of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) and PCAFI director, spoke about ASF’s effects on the hog industry, which is being encouraged to repopulate, leading to fairly stable farm gate prices in 2022. He also cited feed costs as a challenge, especially with the dip of the peso and the disruption of global supply chains caused by the Russia-Ukraine war.
“So far, during this rainy season, we’re seeing that the pigs are growing faster and that’s why there’s some softening in our farm gate prices. But of course, this is seasonal,” Cheng said in Taglish. “We need to build our capacity. Increase the number of sows, which, from 1.7 million is now down to less than a million.”
He stressed that the farm gate prices are due to many factors, many beyond the producers’s control. “We are making good use of whatever resources we have.”
One of the many questions asked of the panel was if it was indeed possible to bring down the price of rice to ₱20 per kilo, as the President promised. To this, Fausto said, “It cannot be done immediately, but I think it can be done. I told the President, ‘Let's subsidize the input and not the output.’”
There are many things that need to be done to revamp the agriculture industry. These are but some suggestions that, if done correctly, will benefit every Filipino because even if one is not a farmer, one is sure to be a consumer.