Congress needed to support farmers

If our government’s executive branch fails to support our farmers (including fisherfolk) in the face of Asean economic integration next year, Congress must act to fill this gap. How will this happen?

Congress has the authority and responsibility to listen to the farmers, judge what is fair for them, then use their “power of the purse” to address their welfare. It will make the final decision on how the 2015 Department of Agriculture (DA) budget will be allocated to the DA’s different activities. This is particularly important for next year, when Asian economic integration will be in full swing.

The Alyansa Agrikultura is happy with Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala’s initiatives in lessening the massive corruption done during the previous administration. But if corruption is decreased without changing policies detrimental to the farmers, the farmers will continue to be poor. This is especially important now, because of the double threat of climate change and rapid Asean economic integration.

However, if Congress approves a well-formulated agriculture program with the appropriate 2015 budget, the Asean integration can be transformed from a threat into an opportunity.

Track record

Agriculture has not received due attention. The industry sector has been prepared much better than agriculture. This was obvious during the Asean Economic Community Conference held last April 10. During this conference, key leaders were invited from industry, but not from agriculture. More than 20 industry road maps were identified, but not one agriculture road map. And while there were more than 20 senior DTI government officials from the DTI Secretary down to bureau and regional directors, only two DA directors came. The farmer leaders were left frustrated and angry. They believe they will be the worst hit by any mishandling of the Asean economic integration, and yet agriculture was hardly mentioned during the conference.

Last year, Congress showed its concern for agriculture by giving DA a P65-billion budget, 16 times more than DTI’s P4-billion budget. However, manufacturing grew by 10.3 percent compared to agriculture’s 1.2 percent. Was the DA budget properly allocated and implemented? In areas related to Asean economic integration, the answer is no.

Asean claims it favors a level playing field. Thus, it has leveled practically all tariffs at 0 percent. But this is only half the truth. The other half of protection is the subsidies a country’s government gives its farmers. It is well-known that other Asean governments give their farmers more subsidies than our government. Therefore, to truly level the playing field, our government must give our farmers similar subsidies.

Trade meeting

During the April 25 meeting of the international trade committee of the Philippine Council for Agriculture and Fisheries, Alyansa Agrikultura pointed out the need for equalizing our subsidies with other governments to achieve a true level playing field. Unfortunately, despite the Agriculture and Fisheries 2025 (AF2025) recommendation made during the February 10-11, 2011 Conference, a systematic listing of each Asean country’s subsidies to their agricultural subsectors has not been made.

After more than three years, why has this not been done? Our government’s attention has been naively focused on tariffs, and not the total protection picture of tariffs and subsidies.

A glaring example of neglect is that our government has denied our farmers the agricultural laboratories that other Asean countries give their farmers. We urgently need these laboratories to certify that our products meet export criteria, and thus enable us to actually export. At the same time, they will protect our consumers from unsafe and harmful agriculture imports.

DA officials say they have been submitting since 2010 the necessary budget for these government laboratories, but other government agencies have stopped these submissions from reaching Congress.

Needed action

Both Houses of Congress should now take pro-active action and exercise due diligence to avoid travesties like this. A systematic listing of subsidies given by each Asean country to their agricultural subsectors should finally be done. Congress should then approve a 2015 DA budget that will provide the same level of subsidies to our farmers that other Asean governments give theirs. If this does not happen, the injustices our farmers have been subjected to during the past decades will continue. We will never achieve inclusive growth. Our government may even gain the dubious distinction of paying attention to the rich while ignoring the poor.

(The author is Chair of Agriwatch, former Secretary for Presidential Flagship Programs and Projects, and former Undersecretary for Agriculture, Trade and Industry. For inquiries and suggestions, email [email protected] or telefax (02) 8522112).