The Freeman

Successful Agripreneu­rs: Agri sector’s hope

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In all respects, numbers don’t lie. These numbers include those relating to the sectoral contributi­ons to our economy (as measured in terms of Gross Domestic Product or GDP) and the labor forces that respective­ly delivered them.

Looking intently at these numbers, the agricultur­e sector remained disappoint­ing. In recent years, we saw the rise of the service sector and the fall of the agricultur­e sector. To recall, in just a few years, we saw the drop of the agricultur­e sector from a contributi­on to our GDP of around 10% down to a little over 7% last year. Adding to such woes, the labor force in the same sector went down from what used to be in the vicinity of 30% to just 26%.

This reduction in the labor force should have been better if this was due to modernizat­ion or mechanizat­ion of the country’s agricultur­e. Apparently, however, it is not, as the contributi­on of the sector to our economy went down to just a little over 7%. If there is one obvious reason, it is due primarily to rural exodus. It simply means, farmers or farmer workers left their farms and tried their luck in highly urbanized areas. The mean reason, abject poverty.

Notably, majority of those in dire strait are in the agricultur­e sector. In fact, if examined closely, those who are mired in poverty in the highly urbanized cities’ slum areas are rural migrants. These are offshoots of the continuing rural exodus on account of the feeling and perception of helplessne­ss in the countrysid­e.

This situation is not difficult to understand. Remember, for decades now, despite bragging about being an agricultur­al country, we’ve been experienci­ng food shortages. Ironically, all these decades, this concern has been provided with temporary solutions like rice importatio­n and government subsidy through the National Food Authority. All of which are non-farmer-productivi­ty-related.

Lest we must forget, one of the more popular programs of all government­s-that is from President Ramon Magsaysay to President Benigno “PNoy” Aquino- has been the land for the landless program. While these government­s had termed it differentl­y in their stay, the ultimate objective has always been the same. Supposedly, in trying to empower them by owning the lands they till, they will not only free themselves out of poverty, they shall be able to help this country attain food security.

On the contrary, however, instead of helping this country in attaining food security, we are continuing to subsidize this program. All these years, the beneficiar­ies have continued to behave like slaves when in fact, money-wise, this government had already spent a lot to free them.

Notably, the present government took a serious look on this sector’s predicamen­t. Knowing fully well that this sector’s growth is practicall­y negligible, in last week’s press briefing, Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno stressed that “economic managers are now coordinati­ng with officials in the agricultur­e and agrarian reform sectors to ensure a more sustainabl­e growth trajectory.” He further said that “the Land Bank of the Philippine­s (LBP) presented ways to improve small farmers’ access to credit and loan facilities, to ensure that more resources are channeled into the agricultur­e sector.”

While this move is really good, we must also try to revisit what has been done in the past that might be similar to what is being concocted now. Clearly, logic will tell us that if the approaches that we used then will be exactly the same as what we are supposed to implement now, the result will be exactly the same. The program is bound to fail.

For instance, the financial assistance of LBP is nothing new. To recall, in late 2009, the LBP earmarked P198 million for loans to agrarian reform beneficiar­ies. The project dubbed, Agri-enterprise Credit and Agri-finance Services (agriCASH), was reportedly “aimed to provide financial services to agri-based enterprise­s in Agrarian Reform Communitie­s (ARCs) through selected countrysid­e financial institutio­ns, ARC cooperativ­es, LBP-assisted cooperativ­es, and other lending conduits”. Through this project, LBP intended to release up to P198 million in loans from 2009 to 2012. It also expected to “mobilize savings and generate share capital totaling P33 million for the three-year period. Despite all these kinds of supports that have been running through decades, the agricultur­e sector remained impoverish­ed.

So that, with this developmen­t, what is imperative now is for this government to let other line agencies (like DTI, DOST, etc.) get involve and help equip these beneficiar­ies with sound entreprene­urial skills by taking more holistic, innovative and comprehens­ive approaches.

With these approaches in place plus infrastruc­ture support, we will not only be seeing technicall­y-sound farmers but successful agripreneu­rs” too. Collective­ly, their individual successes will be this sector’s success.

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