‘SPARK OF HOPE’
Encouraged by agriculture’s modest growth as other sectors declined in the pandemic, MINDA seeks policy interventions for fruits, aqua ventures in bid to help farmers climb out of debt trap.
DAVAO CITY—THE Mindanao Development Authority (MINDA) is seeking policy interventions for some food production areas that have made significant contributions in supplying food for locked-down urban areas, a move that may likely radiate to the rest of the agriculture sector.
At the outset, rice, corn and coconut, and aquaculture, have been eyed for immediate actions that range from providing grains storage to ensuring rice and corn stocks sufficiency and review of the rice importation law to assure farmers of priority in the purchase of their yield.
MINDA chief Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol also sought the national government’s nod to lift the ban on the export of mature coconut fruits and the issuance of a special permit for the Mindanao coconut-producing sector to proceed with their export.
Policy interventions were also directed at encouraging the aquaculture sector to flourish and enhance fish production.
The interventions would likely rest on the ray of hope provided by the agriculture sector, which posted minimal growth during the second quarter this year, at least in the area of production, giving steady employment and buoying up host local economies at a time when other sectors of the economy were in the red.
Grains
PIÑOL will submit a Mindanao Corn Development Program of MINDA for inclusion in the Mindanao Peace and Development Program (MINPAD), or Rise Mindanao, which includes establishing grains storage complexes fitted with modern dryers and silos in at least four cornproducing regions of Mindanao to ensure food security on the island and propel the economy adversely affected by the pandemic.
Among other measures are a need to liberate corn farmers from the village traders’ shackles who also provide seeds, fertilizers and cash advances at usurious rates; to organize themselves into viable cooperatives, or associations, to access credit, especially for good seeds and farm inputs; and to link up the corn cooperatives, or associations, to government lending institutions.
Mindanao corn farmers were always hounded by price instability, which, Piñol said, drastically drops at peak harvest season and goes up during the off-harvest period.
“This problem is not new. As a farm boy who grew up among rice and corn farmers, I saw the frustration and disappointment in my late father and other farmers’ faces when their earnings after four months fell way below what they had expected. This trapped them in an endless cycle of poverty where they borrowed money to plant and paid back with what they harvested, oftentimes leaving them in deep debt,” Piñol said.
“Of course, a very important component of this program is the continuing technology and financial capability training for farmers. With a stable price for their corn produce, farmers are expected to produce more, thus ensuring the [welfare of] industries relying on corn—like poultry, livestock and cooking oil manufacturers— of a steady supply,” he added.
According to Piñol, Mindanao produces roughly half of the total corn production of the country, “but this could still be boosted with the implementation of the Mindanao Corn Development Program, a holistic approach in increasing productivity and reducing poverty in the agriculture sector.”
On the more consumed grains like rice, the MINDA is asking Congress to review Republic Act 11203, the rice importation law, as farm-gate prices of palay experienced anew a drop in price, from P22 a kilo two years ago to just P11 per kilo in many areas of the region during harvest season.
The governing board of MinDA, composed of Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri, Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) Chief Minister Ahod Murad Ebrahim, congressional representatives, governors and mayors who head the Regional Development Councils (RDC) and private-sector representatives, asked Congress to review and make amendments to the law that allowed the unimpeded entry of imported rice into the country.
“If it is really causing injury to the rice industry and hardships to our farmers, then it is only fair that we review the law,” said Zubiri, who was among the senators who approved the passage of the Rice Tariffication Law.
Coconut
WITH the coconut sector continuing to fuel local economies and providing income to farmers, MINDA has asked Malacañang to lift the ban on export of mature coconuts and to issue a special permit to Mindanao.
This was due to the complaint, also hounding all the other crops, about the plunging price of coconut byproducts, mainly oil, as the influx of substitute oils brought down prices of copra.
“We are resubmitting our recommendation to the President, noting that if we want to restart the economy, we can direct our focus on our coconut farmers who are actually among the sectors affected by the pandemic,” Piñol said.
He said 1985 Presidential Decree 1106 should be lifted to allow coconut farmers in the country, “who had been reeling from the effects of low copra prices due to the influx of other alternative cooking oils,” to take advantage of the mature coconut market.
“If we take immediate action on this, there will be an immediate effect. If our coconut farmers can export, they will really earn unlike if they market it locally, the price is very low,” Piñol said.
The MINDA said this was also the move Piñol took as chairman of the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) Governing Board, when he was then Secretary of the Department of Agriculture.
(In late September, Zubiri grilled Piñolonh is agriculture-filled programs when the MIND A was supposed to be a development agency other than agriculture. Piñol retorted that this was due to the agriculture nature of Mindanao, which must be developed to harness the potential for industry and manufacturing.)
Piñol said giving due course to the Mindanao coconut farmers’ bid to export could wait “until such time the full impact of the measure is determined.”
In the same petition to Malacañang, MINDA had also requested BARMM to pass legislation allowing the export of mature coconuts.
“If only coconut farmers were allowed to export mature coconuts, their incomes could improve drastically. For every 8,000 pieces [average harvest per hectare of a well-tended farm, according to the Philippine Coconut Authority] sold in the local market, they stand to earn only P32,000 to P40,000. If allowed to export, they can earn as much as P64,000 to P80,000,” Piñol said.
Aquaculture
MEANWHILE, MINDA has eyed developing the coastal town of Sultan Naga Dimaporo in Lanao del Norte for bangus fish cage farming to push job generation in this sleepy rural town in northern Mindanao, and, at the same time, form part of a wider expansion program involving a total of 22 areas in Mindanao.
In the case of the Lanao del Norte town, Piñol told Mayor Mutalib Dimaporo that his town is the only one in the province facing the Moro Gulf, and has a 30-kilometer coastal line and a newly completed fish port.
Sultan Naga Dimaporo town has a population of 60,000, of which about 40 percent are Maranaos and 60 percent are Visayans. “This would be a perfect example of a town with peaceful coexistence between Muslims and Christians,” he added.
Piñol said Dimaporo may engage the town’s former migrant workers in the project, which also involves putting up an ice-making factory and cold-storage facilities.
Piñol said the 22 projects would seek funding from the P3.5billion grant assistance from the European Union. He said more than half of this portfolio were to be handled by MINDA, through the German funding unit, GIZ, and World Bank-funded Philippine Rural Development Project.
Standout
THE Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) report on the second-quarter performance of the Philippine economy showed that Mindanao’s agriculture sector still eked out a 0.1-percent growth even as the industry and services sectors posted a negative 6.9 percent and 9.7 percent decline, respectively.
The agriculture sector’s modest growth sparked hope among Mindanaoans, MINDA said.
The region, MINDA noted, supplies over 40 percent of the country’s food requirements and contributes more than 30 percent to the national food trade.
Despite a 16.5-percent drop of the GDP in the second quarter this year, the worst since 1981, MINDA projected Mindanao to shine amid the pandemic.
A MINDA statement quoting MINDA Assistant Secretary Romeo Montenegro said Mindanao’s contribution to the country’s agricultural output cannot be overemphasized.
“While major growth drivers succumbed to the Covid-19 pandemic, the agricultural sector output for domestic consumption and exports of top Mindanao agricultural products stood strong against the insane waves of adversity, showing Mindanao’s resiliency,” he said.
He added that the agricultural value chain (AVC) accounted for 60 percent of Mindanao’s gross regional domestic product (GRDP), as noted in the World Bank’s 2017 Mindanao Jobs Report.
“Presumably, it is not agriculture, forestry and fisheries (AFF) per se that’s being referred to, but the AVC, which cut across other sectors such as services; for example, hotels and malls sell agri-food products, some construction activities are related to setting up agrifacilities, and the sizable volume of logistics flow contains agri-products, raw or processed, domestic or for exports,” Montenegro said.
He added that there is a bigger message beyond the AFF serving only a fraction of Mindanao’s Gross Value Added (GVA), which is also only about 15 percent of the country’s total.
“The message is Mindanao’s agricultural performance is a small spark of hope in this dark economic reality,” he said. “Regardless of the situation we are confronted with— calamities, disasters, conflict, pandemic and the like—we all need food to survive. So if the focus is given to improving Mindanao’s agri sector, which is an inherent strength, toward self-sufficiency, food security and sustainability, then we become more resilient and can stand better chances of overcoming internal or external shocks and recover faster.”