Suggestions to beat Asean poverty faster

of solutions to our rural poverty as part of his communication to another interested party. With his permission, I am quoting it in the following paragraphs:

“Frank Hilario is correct on several points.

“Alleviation, or better if admittedly all but impossible, elimination of poverty must become the national focus. Poverty imprisons a man. A poor man is not free. Without freedom from want, a man is denied various opportunities to provide body and soul with the wings that total freedom requires.

“A case can be made for the assertion that poverty is the root of various ills. Impoverished persons can resort to—and actually, repeatedly, have in desperation resorted to— acts which are not acceptable to the people with whom they co-exist. When enough such poor, dis status, they band together to address common woes, i. e., a social volcano is created. Thus, homegrown insurgents attract new recruits much like they do in our country, like Naxalites do in India and similar groups in many other economically disadvantaged groups elsewhere.

“The Philippines, being an agricultural society while still transitioning into an industrial and post-industrial (knowledge-based) country, must have a solid footing in agriculture if it has to foster inclusive growth and sidestep the poverty trap. There is just too large a percentage of Filipinos engaged in agriculture to ignore this segment of society.

“The country must find a leader or a group of leaders to create a vision for agriculture and set out to implement strategies to make that vision a reality. The ultimate goal is creation of a state where everyone is free of want. Two goals stand out. First, food security must be achieved for our country to provide independence from the vagaries of foreign food sources and fluctuations in valuation of the peso relative to other currencies. Second, and equally important is freedom of farmers and fisherfolk from grinding poverty. It is not enough that farmers and fisherfolk ( they may at certain times be the same person) produce for their food requirements. Farmers and fisherfolk must produce much more to meet other equally essential human needs. The two goals delineated differ. The national need for food security differs from the vision of farmers and fisherfolk living free from want. The country may well secure food security at the expense, and through the exploitation, of farmers and fisherfolk. Both however, be met.

“The strategies to lift farmers - quire modernization. These strategies do not require rocket science.

“At the top of the list is market get an equitable share from their efforts. That middlemen, processors and retailers earn much more than farmers is validated by the observation that abject poverty visits these contributors to the value chain much less often than farmers established markets have been developed only in pineapple and poultry markets and only in smaller quantities in other agricultural vegetable and fruit producers and are at the mercy of middlemen.

“Closely related to having a sure market at equitable prices are effective mechanisms to bring agricultural produce to market. Sans an effective rail system and an economical cold chain, and hampered by the archipelagic nature of the Philippines, the means to maximize utilization of produce cry out for solutions.

“Quality requirements to both preserve and to produce goods suitable for export mandate reduction of the risk of food borne diseases, spread of pests and diseases and delay or elimination of sprouting and ripening. This is best addressed by food irradiation. The Philippines does not possess a single commercial-scale food ir- goals must, radiation facility.

“Improved agronomic factors include growing material (seeds) quality, the growing cycle, radiation, temperature, rooting, aeration, water availability and quality including salinity, nutrition (fertilization), pH, micronutrients and toxic conditions, pests, diseases and minimization of losses due to climatic conditions (including global warming).

“While meeting the universal need of farmers to own the lands they till, land reform whereby land is owned by farmers, absent primogeniture laws which man keeps all the land, with the passage of time, farms become progressively smaller. There comes a point where small plots just no longer best serve the needs of farmers. A vexing issue is that the current agrarian reform system does not permit utilization of the land title to borrow money.

“Access to funds for effective farming remains a challenge. Laws mandate that 25 percent of bank holdings are lent out for agriculture. Only about half of bank money mandated by law to be lent to agriculture is actually lent out. Banks, particularly large commercial banks, would rather pay penalties than lend out to farmers of the unacceptably high default rate from loans given to farmers - lutions to address access of farmers

“Other issues which require better ideas and/or execution are: effective extension which may include professional management; mechanization; intercropping and implementation of results with but little time lag; effective and socially acceptable utilization of the coconut levy funds; corporate farming; village level processing; one town one product concept; minimization and elimination of smuggling; and policies to protect - eralization becomes a way of life.

“According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitive Report for 2017-2018, Vietnam has surpassed the Philippines in competitiveness. Indonesia and Brunei Darussalem made the biggest strides. The Philippines has seen its score decrease.

“We need to do better. Can we do it?”

My answer is: yes we can. The entire Asean10 can. But we need the efficient communicators to explain the complexities of - information and global competititon—in their own tongues in the most simple terms for the “poor” to understand.

Only then will our marginalized populations understand and adapt their own modernization and push the national and regional economies in this globalization century.