State of Agriculture Address

President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. will deliver his first State of the Nation Address on Monday. My take is that the essential substance of his speech will be on food security. I do not know how he would do the balancing act considering the fact that his economic advisers are not about to give up on the Rice Tariffication Law and the importation of food commodities against his agenda. As Secretary of the Department of Agriculture, he is focused on increasing agricultural productivity.

Recovering from his second bout with Covid, his first face-to-face meeting was with his agriculture team. On top of the agenda was farm-to-market roads. His subalterns came out on TV the following day detailing to his audience the importance of farm-tomarket roads. He sounded banal and worse, that he is clueless about what is happening on the ground.

I cannot blame PBBM if he is not aware that his father established a network of farm-to-market roads along with the many irrigation systems that were constructed during his term. Where there were irrigation canals that snaked through rice fields, the embankments became veritable roads used by barangay dwellers to commute and deliver products to the markets. These actually served as secondary and tertiary roads because there were networks of municipal and provincial roads that were built during the incumbency of PFM.

Irrigation systems then were well-maintained and included parallel roads along the canals. What’s saddening is that when the Aquino government took over up to the present, the irrigation systems had been abandoned. Canals had been silted, grasses deterred the flow of water, the embankments had been eroded and the roads no longer passable. Given that condition, the allocation of irrigation water was erratic and there was so much waste along the way.

I am glad that PBBM took note of this issue as he will be hitting several birds with one stone: The rehabilitation of farm-to-market roads and irrigation systems (canals), the systematic allocation and maximization of irrigation waters, and the planting of palay twice a year.

As a hanger-on, in addition, may I contribute some pieces of advice/proposals to President Marcos:

1. Assess the condition of the facilities of The National Food Authority (NFA) e.g. silos and rice mills and FTI cold storage facilities and other assets. Restore all said facilities back to efficient working conditions and if necessary replace them.

Equip each warehouse with hauling trucks. Provide the NFA with sufficient initial funds to purchase farmers’ production at the farmers’ gate at a justifiable price. Eventually, the NFA can be self-sustaining.

2. Pass an executive order or a piece of legislation requiring domestic airlines, and passenger buses, to allocate cargo space or tonnage for the Food Terminal Inc. (FTI) perishable goods at the rate of 30 percent less than their rack rates. The government may further shoulder 20 percent of the remaining 70 percent which can be credited to the transport firms in terms of tax credits.

3. Have a special lane for reefer vans carrying aggie products from Central and Northern Luzon, Mindanao and Visayas or buy ro-ros (roll-on, roll-off vessels) only for this purpose to ferry perishable products to FTI in Taguig. Trains traveling from the provinces must allocate space for agricultural cargoes. Perishable goods include vegetables, hogs, and poultry meat, fish, fruits, and even cut flowers.

Revive Masagana 99, Masaganang Maisan and include Sorghum. Open special window facilities in Land Bank and DBP for cheap loans to rice and corn farmers and fishermen or cooperatives. DA’s provincial and municipal officials must be out in the fields and not in their offices.

4. Pass laws imposing stiffer penalties and prison terms against the smuggling of agricultural commodities.

5. Remove tariffs on fertilizers and agrochemicals.

6. Designate the Department of Science and Technology in cooperation with the University of the Philippines-Los Baños and the International

Rice Research Institute

(IRRI) to come up with the technology that would convert water hyacinth in Laguna de

Bay, Pasig River and

Liguasan marsh into organic fertilizer to help restore the fertility of farmlands. Organic fertilizer, however, should only complement chemical fertilizer.

7. Provide certified seeds of highyielding variety of rice, corn and sorghum.

8. Conduct massive rehabilitation of irrigation canals that had been totally neglected after the PFEM regime. So much irrigation water is wasted.

9. Develop simple electro-mechanical dryers that farmers can afford. IRRI was said to have developed a mobile “bubble solar dryer” that uses solar panels and batteries which can be laid in the farmer’s compound or in the fields. It seems like this technology never left the confines of IRRI for lack of government interest. The DA should evaluate this and distribute the technical design to farmers and assist in the fabrication of the unit.

10. The cost of palay production differs in every region. Therefore, come up with the best farm practices, evaluate, and come up with best practices to reduce cost and increase productivity.

Thank you and good luck, Mr. President. My father who is a farmer and now in heaven must be smiling ear to ear.

“Where there were irrigation canals that snaked through rice fields, the embankments became veritable roads used by barangay dwellers to commute and deliver products to the markets.

“Open special window facilities in Land Bank and DBP for cheap loans to rice and corn farmers and fishermen or cooperatives.