Agriculture: Disaster & climate change resilience

( This is the condensed version of the speech I presented at the Arangkada Philippines Forum on March 1.)

The Philippines is the 13th most climate – vulnerable out of 186 countries, according to the 2016 Climate Change Vulnerability Index. At least 85 provinces are now experiencing severe drought as we are in the middle of the worst El Niño event to hit the country in the last 20 years. Mindanao will be the hardest hit by changes in climate averages and extremes. By 2030, 1.4 million Filipinos will be at higher risk of hunger due to lower agricultural production caused by climate change. One should note farmers are the lowest paid sector in the country. Farmers’ poverty incidence of 38 percent has remained unchanged since 2006.

Despite the abundance of academic papers on the role of agriculture in our economy and the fact that every administration has launched programs, we have not made progress in moving the agriculture sector forward. Agriculture yielded the lowest productivity and lowest incomes with an average growth of 1.3 percent in the last five years. The sector is not just stagnant, it is deteriorating. I would like to share with you the experience of the Zuellig Family Foundation in the health sector. Like health, agricultural services have been devolved to local government. However, programs and projects continue to be designed at the central level with local governments having limited capability to influence the strategic directions and design of these programs.

What ZFF has done is to empower local governments by providing technical assistance— building their capacity to address the unique gaps in their local health system through better governance and leadership.

I believe the Department of Agriculture should do the same – provide more technical assistance – and financial grants to local governments to make their agricultural services more responsive to the needs of their specific area. This may be a departure from the centralized agricultural plan downloaded to the local regions, but I see it as absolutely essential. If mayors and governors can raise agricultural productivity and increase farm incomes, then, I believe, an immediate reduction in the poverty level in the rural areas can be achieved. To support this, one of the priority actions of the next government is to revisit the role of local government in agriculture.

Each successive administration has launched programs to address bottlenecks to agricultural and rural development. But much more needs to be done. There has been no shortage of ideas and solutions, but how come we have not made progress in moving the agriculture sector forward?

Since I am a process and systems person, I would like to focus on the implementation of these policies and programs. Otherwise, they remain just ideals.

More than any other sector of our economy, agriculture is the most vulnerable to the vicissitudes of nature. We cannot do much to prevent nature from taking its course, but much can be done to mitigate its negative impact. Failure to do so will have devastating impact on our well-being.

Addressing agriculture today— both large- scale and small-holder—means addressing the most visible and most pressing manifestations of poverty: lack of livelihood, sustainable food supply, hunger and malnutrition, and even urban migration. A strong agricultural sector also prepares us for the impact of natural hazards and climate change, making us more disaster-and climate-resilient.

Plans are underway to establish a multi- stakeholder alliance to help bring agriculture to the forefront of our national development agenda.

The experience of ZFF in improving maternal and infant health, in partnership with local government units and subsequently with the Department of Health, offers useful lessons on how such an alliance for agriculture can operate. The key lesson is to encourage local ownership and leadership for improving local outcomes and help build the capacities of mayors and governors to deliver needed services.

While there is a clear need for bold solutions to guide the resurgence of agriculture in this country, especially those relating to market access, finance, infrastructure, and other critical inputs, those who have the most at stake, those who have the greatest motivation to act in developing agriculture, should be in the driver’s seat.

The concept of this alliance for agriculture with the vision of advancing pro- poor, climate and disaster- smart solutions that will revitalize the agriculture sector has been shared with a number of businessmen in Mindanao and Manila, and already, support in the private sector for this initiative is evident.

A good example of locally- led climate- smart agriculture is in Dumangas, Iloilo, where farmers and rural folk undergo climate change adaptation training in a climate field school -- the first in the country – that has resulted in a 30 percent increase in rice production.

Mindanao, as the bread basket of the country, is the ideal place to pilot this initiative. No area is more vulnerable to climate change than Mindanao where agriculture contributes 65 percent to its economy. While climate change is affecting the entire country, Mindanao has been and will continue to be the hardest hit. Given its complex human security and development challenges, a resilient agriculture sector can potentially serve as a catalyst for growth and stability for the entire region.

In the coming weeks, we intend to consult with experts, national and local government representatives, business and civil society organizations on the feasibility of launching a Multi- Stakeholder Alliance for agriculture. We hope that the outcome of those discussions will be an agenda that will advance and accelerate agricultural development in our country.

Finally I urge all who have a vested interest in agriculture to join us in this endeavor. It is also my hope that the next administration will adopt agriculture as a priority policy.