Group slams PNoy’s neglect of agri sector

URDANETA CITY, Pangasinan – The Samahan ng Industriya ng Agrikultura (SINAG) has taken President Aquino to task for not fulfilling the promises he made to the agricultural sector which he made during his first State of the Nation Address (SONA) five years ago.

SINAG said Aquino appeared upbeat in 2010 when he declared that the country will become self-sufficient in rice during his term.

It said that the President also vowed to reverse the abuses during the administration of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo which allegedly indulged in excessive rice importations.

SINAG even recalled Aquino’s own words in his SONA 2010: “What hurts is, because they keep purchasing more than what they need year after year, the excess rice that had to be stored in warehouses ended up rotting... Is this not a crime, letting rice rot despite the fact that there are four million Filipinos who do not eat three times a day?”

But now that there are only 10 months left in the Aquino administration, SINAG said that it was disappointed that the President even left any discussion about the agriculture sector out of his last SONA.

“Nasaan na ang sinasabing rice self-sufficiency, food security, agricultural modernization and anti-smuggling efforts ng previous SONAs of the President?” SINAG rued.

“Ngayon, tila nakalimutan na ang mga magbubukid sa tinaguriang daang matuwid ng Pangulo,” lamented Rosendo So, SINAG chair.

So said the agriculture sector had hoped that the President would have delved on the wanton importation and the worsening smuggling of agricultural commodities that deprived the national government of almost billion in lost revenues.

The latest data culled by SINAG suggested that a total of billion were denied our government last year due to the smuggling of six agricultural commodities.

Rice smuggling alone deprived this government of billion in revenue out of the total market value of almost billion. The multi-agri group argued that instead of pushing for increased rice productivity and food self-sufficiency, the Aquino administration even seemingly gave its tacit approval for smuggling to continue this year.

“Government’s own statistics should have sounded the alarm bells for this administration. From an employment figure of 12.04 million people for the sector at the end of 2009, agriculture is now employing only 11.480 million,” continued So.

SINAG added that the agriculture sector was only contributing 0.2 percentage point to the GDP growth this year compared to the 3.1 percentage points of the service sector and the 1.9 percentage points from the industrial sector.

The growth rate of the agriculture sector for the first quarter of this year as compared to last year is even (negative) -1.1%