Suffering like a ‘farmer’

I now know the pain of most chicken growers and hog raisers in the country, because I myself have gone through it and continue to do so, month after month.

Not long ago, I wrote about my interest in becoming a contract grower of chickens, back then it seemed like a pretty good idea and a great way of making some extra money. Thanks to the many kind readers of the Philippine STAR, I was saved from certain financial disaster after many of you who had entered the contract growing business, shared their operational and financial nightmares.

With a thousand times more caution, I changed course and decided to operate as a backyard “organic” chicken and native pig farmer. In fact it was so backyard that my business model was based on how everybody’s great grandparents did it. Nothing fancy except for the feeds. No medications, just a sharp knife and a cooking pot for any chicken or pig that was not up to par.

Two years, 300 chickens and 50 pigs later, I can now totally relate to the anger and frustration of our chicken and hog raisers who seem to be fighting a losing battle with little or no help from the Senate, Congress and the government.

While we have all the expertise in the country, the profitability of the business is determined by the cost of feeds and marketability of produce. But how can Filipinos market their produce competitively and profitably when even the big feed millers and corporate poultry raisers complain about the costs of materials and slump in prices?

The irony is that Filipinos are eating even more chicken but not Filipino raised chicken or pork. They are eating “technically smuggled,” “under valued,” imported excess produce of other countries. If these were electronics or garments, they would term it “Dumping.”

I have heard well-meaning government officials lament the fact that it is cheaper to buy corn from Bangkok rather than ship corn from Cagayan Valley because of fuel and transport costs. Every time I attend an agricultural event, I hear about how farmers can’t sell chicken or pigs competitively because of rampant smuggling and uncontrolled importation via the Minimum Access Volume of the WTO-GATT.

Yes the people at the Department of Agriculture are trying to do what little they can do to help, but it will never be enough because the problem requires Presidential intervention as well as the formulation of a Cabinet Cluster dedicated to solving the problems of procurement, transport of feeds and clamping down on technical smuggling and abuse of the Minimum Access Volume provisions of the WTOGATT which the Philippines agreed to. This needs Presidential action because we are talking about food that Filipinos buy and eat everyday, about investments and jobs that ordinary Filipinos have placed their faith on. This is about food security, not just profit.

We all know the sorry state of affairs concerning the disparity in local and imported corn. But has Congress or the government investigated the actual reasons and come up with solutions instead of telling us what we already know? Every time there is a forum or convention government reps tell us the same spiel but after so many years there are still no scientific data or publicized efforts to fix whatever is making local corn and other grains so expensive at retail.

If the government through the NFA can somehow buy up rice for the poor, why can’t the government buy up the corn instead of letting multiple middlemen cut in. The prohibitive cost of corn has a lot to do with inefficiency, too many middlemen and lack of a national program dedicated to assist and link corn producers with chicken and hog producers. There is too much talk about rice but not about corn.

We can actually have our cake and eat it to. If the government wants to keep its WTO-GATT commitments, all it has to do is switch things around. Instead of letting in a flood of chicken cutlets and semi-processed pork, switch that with corn and other grains needed by poultry farms, hog raisers and feed millers. Instead of becoming a dumping ground, we protect our bio-security particularly with Avian Flu and Foot & Mouth disease, as well as producing the higher value products locally.

Corn and grain farmers won’t have to worry if the government seriously pursues a buying program directly from farmers thereby increasing their profits and removing middlemen. I would even think that the local farmers can’t produce enough corn especially with oil companies now developing bio-fuel and ethanol mixed gasoline.

If the President fails to address this serious problem, food security and food prices will continue to be a major concern. The last couple of months I’ve been told by veterinarians and farmers alike that some farms have drastically cut production because it makes no sense to sell at break even or below cost. This situation they say is the result of having too much imported chicken meat and pork in the market.

This results in driving down farm gate prices and discourages growth among backyard and commercial growers. Some people I know have simply sold as many as they can sell below cost to cut further losses due to feed costs. The prevailing strategy is to reduce current stocks to a minimum until farmers see an improved situation. Ultimately, the self imposed reduction will create temporary shortages thereby pushing prices up, which smugglers will once again use to justify getting low tariff special import permits.

With the soaring costs of electricity, fuel and transport, the very least that the P-noy administration can do is to actually show its interest and concern for the industry and our food security by acting now and not when disaster strikes.