June 6 was the last working day of the 15th Congress. On that day, a critical component of the legislature met to take action on agriculture. This is the Congressional Oversight Committee on Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization (Cocafm). The Cocafm was created as part of the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act (Afma). Its mandate is to promote agriculture development through modernization.
Last June 1, new truck overloading guidelines were put into effect. Instead of axle weight, gross vehicle weight (GVW) is now the basis for determining the required carrying load.
Innovation means uncertainty, and is therefore often resisted.
Are road maps necessary to achieve growth? The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) appears to think so. The DBM has initially turned down the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) budget proposal of a 48-percent increase from P65 billion in 2013 to P96 billion in 2014. Instead, the DBM has recommended a 26-percent decrease to P48 billion… unless the DA submits road maps. But are road maps really necessary for agriculture growth?
Given the recent Senate elections indicating our people’s support for President Aquino’s governance, his goal of inclusive growth can now be better attained. PNoy identified three areas that best contribute to this goal: agriculture, infrastructure and tourism.
In my previous commentary, I reported that Director Clarito Barron (09178738483) of DA’s Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) cited the mayors as the key to nursery development. However, because of an incident involving a nongovernment organization early last week, he now says that NGOs can also fulfill that important role.
My commentary last week on nurseries as anchors for agriculture development elicited great interest. To follow up what action should be taken to promote this, we discovered that mayors are the key to nursing anchor nursery development.
It is not only large multinational firms like Del Monte and Dole that can be agriculture anchors. So can small and medium size agriculture processing firms, cooperatives and even individuals. As we approach 2015 and the effectivity of the Asean Free Trade Agreement (Afta) with its almost zero percent tariff regime, it is imperative that [...]
A key solution to the smuggling problems today is to have a structure that has already proven successful in the past. This is the Task Force on Anti-smuggling created through EO 385 on Nov. 16, 2004.
We get the government we deserve. This is a saying that farmers are now acting upon with greater vigor. During the fertilizer scam period, they bravely came out to denounce the corruption by specific unscrupulous officials in the Department of Agriculture, local government units, and even Congress. They succeeded only because of the help of the Senate, led by Senator Jun Magsaysay, and COA, led by officials like Heidi Mendoza.
For agriculture to be sustainable, it must be profitable. NGOs can play a big role in making this happen. They can be the catalysts for the creation of agriculture anchors that will make farmers profitable using economies of scale in technology transfer, selling and purchasing.
Incentives can help, but these can also hinder, growth. And while some incentives help grow a small sector in a limited way, these same incentives may harm the growth of a larger sector over a longer term.
