AVANT GARDENER

The sad thing about our agriculture industry is that it moves so slowly that discussions about old problems and concerns are still relevant months later.

For example, I attended a Pandesal Forum titled “Agrikultura sa Kalunsuran para sa Masaganang Kinabukasan!” (Urban Farming for a Better Future) hosted by columnist and businessperson Wilson Lee Flores at his 84 year-old Kamuning Bakery Cafe late last year. On the panel were, in the order written on the invitation, Dr. Gerald Glenn Panganiban, director of the Dept. of Agriculture (DA) Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI); Dr. Joel Cuello, professor of Biosystems Engineering at University of Arizona; Dr. Cecilio K. Pedro, president of the Federation Of Filipino Chinese Chambers Of Commerce & Industry, Inc. (FFCCCII) and founder of the Lamoiyan Corporation (which produces Hapee Toothpaste, among other products); and former Department of Agriculture Secretary Dr. William D. Dar, now of GoNegosyo. 

It was a pretty long discussion, which I shall be taking several columns to cover and use as jump-off points for my own thoughts, as the items brought up, while not new, are important because it means that we already know the answers, we just somehow refuse to implement them. Like I mentioned in the beginning of this column, sadly, our agriculture industry moves so slowly (if at all) that what’s “old news” remains current.

Dar, who was DA secretary during former President Duterte’s term, including during the pandemic, drew from his experience then as a testament to the efficacy and importance of urban and peri-urban (outside urban but not quite in rural areas) gardening, citing the logistics needed to transport goods from fields to cities. “So it would be the best of arrangements if we develop vegetable and fruit growing areas around,” he said.

He added that what’s lacking is a DA budget, particularly for other crops, as “about 60-65 percent of the budget in agriculture is devoted to rice,” adding that “when there are opportunities for significantly increasing the budget of agriculture, you have to really invest largely and significantly… [in] high-value agriculture. And that should be a big direction the government must undertake.” 

That said, he later noted that Filipinos eat an average of “60 or so kilos” of vegetables a year, half the average of more vegetable-forward countries. This points to not just a need to increase production, but to combine it with several campaigns geared toward encouraging Filipinos to eat more vegetables. Ironically, even though vegetables can be expensive, they are still associated with being poor, and meat, particularly pork and beef, with being rich. 

Dar cites the westernization of the Filipino diet as the culprit behind this cultural shift. “Only a few young people like vegetables,” he said in Taglish. “...we should do more, especially in our curriculum…. The culture, the attitude has to change [to] that it is much healthier to eat vegetables and fruits rather than Western foods.”

But to do something like this requires money. Money for increased DA support for high value crops and other crops that aren’t rice. Money for farm-to-market roads, for post harvest and cold storage facilities, for a comprehensive national planting calendar, even just for proper irrigation systems. Money to mount a nationwide vegetable eating campaign that (and this is very important) isn’t cringey. 

While this administration’s agriculture budget has increased from the last one, it still is nowhere near enough to properly support it. Dar estimated that the DA budget went from 1.5 percent to 1.75 percent of the total national budget, but this pales in comparison to the amounts our ASEAN neighbors dedicate to their thriving agriculture industries, which he estimates set aside six percent of their national budget for agriculture. 

This all points to a disconnect in the Filipino psyche when it comes to agriculture. From my observations and (unfortunately) all too real-life encounters, many Pinoys think that the Philippines is an agricultural country but bristle at the thought of farmers getting paid a fair wage. They equate farming with poverty and love to post about their outrage at vegetables dumped on roadsides without digging deeper into what societal factors lead to such waste. They also love posting about “helping the farmer” (a phrase I deeply disagree with, right up there with “make farming sexy”) as if the agriculture industry was a charity case and not an industry that needs reform and support. And while yes, we look to government officials like the current DA Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. and other government agency leaders and employees to lead the way, it is equally important that the private sector do their part. 
As former DA Secretary Dar said earlier, the culture has to change, and various government agencies such as the DA, the Department of Education, and the Department of Tourism can spearhead this for the good of all Filipinos.