Farm output seen to post growth
THE DEPARTMENT of Agriculture (DA) is looking at a “positive” growth for the country’s agriculture in the second half of the year after the contraction seen at end-June, as the office’s head pitched legislative priorities for the sector before the House of Representatives yesterday.
“We’re looking a positive growth for Philippine agriculture... so far the rice fields are green, our harvest is bumper and everything is turning outright. We are expecting for a positive growth,” Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol said at the sidelines of the 2017 budget deliberations.
Value of agricultural output fell 2.34% in the second quarter, the Philippine Statistics Authority reported last week, but this was nearly half the 4.53% contraction recorded in January-March period that bore the brunt of drought, whose impact was felt by farms starting the second quarter last year that itself saw an upwardly revised 0.01% slip.
The second- quarter drop took last semester’s agriculture performance to a 3.48% contraction, against the 0.89% increment logged in 2015’s comparable six months.
Asked what could be the growth drivers, Mr. Piñol said it will still be the grains sector despite the La Niña phenomenon expected to occur later this year. Palay and corn make up about 20% of the country’s farm output.
“La Niña would not come in until after most of our farmers harvested because we were told the La Niña would come in somewhere at the end of September, October and November. By that time, most of the rice farmers in the eastern sea board of the country would have already harvested,” Mr. Piñol said.
The Agriculture chief added that his department has already started preparing for the La Niña as early as two months ago, as it already prepared a map identifying the areas that could be adversely affected by the weather phenomenon.
The map identified low- risk, medium-risk, high-risk and very high-risk areas through the help of Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration and Science and Technology department’s Project NOAH.
“We now have a plan of action on the farm output production program. We will now prioritizing provinces for food production which would not be included in high-risk areas,” Mr. Piñol added.
LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES
Moreover, Mr. Piñol pitched his department’s legislative agenda before the House of Representatives yesterday, topped by the abolition of irrigation fees to cut farmers’ production costs in a bid to achieve food and nutrition security in the country.
“We will seek free irrigation for our farmers to reduce production cost. Vietnamese farmers no longer pay their irrigation fees. Thai rice farmers no longer pay their irrigation fees. In the Philippines, Filipino farmers cannot plant if they do not pay their irrigation fees, they are not provided water,” Mr. Piñol said during the 2017 budget deliberations at the House of Representatives.
“The President believes that this is an injustice being perpetrated to the Filipino rice farmers,” Mr. Piñol added.
As of now, 10 versions of a measure seeking the removal of the irrigation service fees and for the government to fully subsidize these costs have been filed at the House of Representatives.
Other priority measures lobbied by Mr. Piñol were the passage of the Coco Levy Trust Fund Act; National Land Use Policy Act; Urban Agriculture Act; Philippine Native Animal Development Act; and Right to Food Act.
In his presentation, Mr. Piñol said that the Agriculture department is also looking at ways to modernize the agency to address the concerns of the farmers such as maximizing the use of smartphones and a solarpowered irrigation.
Mr. Piñol said that he had a meeting with an application developer so that a farmer can access the DA Web site 24/7 with the use of an Android phone and send concerns and “refer whatever problem he has by simply taking of picture for example a diseased palay, he would just simply take picture of the diseased palay and send it site which our people will be managing and within 24 hours, our technicians will be able to provide answers to his question.”
“A team of experts in solar power is constructing the first prototype of first solar powered irrigation. They are doing this in a farm in desert in Southern California. We have tasked them to look at the ways of providing solar powered irrigation in areas which do not have access to power lines and which are away from the source of water,” Mr. Piñol added.
Under the 2017 proposed budget, the DA is allocated P50.6 billion, 6.34% lower than what was earmarked for this year at P53.9 billion.
Mr. Piñol said that this is due to lower allocation for farm-to-market roads, the exclusion of funds under the bottom-up budgeting scheme, the transfer of PAMANA (PAyapa at MAsaganang PamayaNAn or Peaceful and Resilient Communities) program to Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process; and the decrease of the allocation for its Philippine Rural Development Project.