A form of insanity will be upon us if we think dispersing seedlings in the traditional way will increase farmers’ incomes.
Albert Einstein said: “Insanity is when we think different things will happen if we do the same things over and over again.”
In the past, Department of Agriculture (DA) often dispersed seedlings without following a results-oriented system.
Thus, many seedlings died. Once again, farmers were misled and taxpayers’ money wasted.
What do we know from past dispersal practices?
Here are a few.
The seedlings were not certified. Therefore, they did not grow as expected.
The farmers who got the seedlings did not get the needed training and technology assistance, resulting in crop failure.
The farmers did not have the necessary financing and support resources to nurture these seedlings to full maturity.
Even if these hurdles were surpassed, the harvested fruits from these seedlings did not fetch the right price because of inadequate market contacts and knowledge, resulting in losses instead of profits.
High value crops
Last March 17, these problems were addressed by the High Value Crops (HVC) Committee of the public-private Philippine Council for Agriculture and Fisheries (PAFC). The subject was the ongoing coffee seedling dispersal scheme.
Coffee is a good place to start. Of the high value crops, coffee is the only one that showed a 4.2-percent sales decrease in 2014.
While we have an excellent track record being at one time the third largest coffee exporter in the world, we now import 85 percent of our annual coffee consumption worth P12 billion.
Imports came mostly from Vietnam, with some coming from Indonesia. Both these countries have the same growing conditions as the Philippines. We must therefore be doing something wrong.
The HVC Committee has recommended a massive dispersal of coffee seedlings.
However, in its unanimously approved resolution, it stated: “Special attention should be given, not only to the need of growers for quality seedlings, but also other factors, including but not limited to: (1) production and technology assistance, (2) assured markets, (3) transparent pricing formulas, and (4) post-harvest facilities on the farm level to improve their bean quality and reduce price discounts.” With this system, the seedlings have the prospect of growing to full maturity. Without this system, these seedlings may die, as has often been seen in the past.
In its resolution, the Committee addressed two important groups. The seedling supply providers and bidders should be compelled to help provide the above back-up system as part of the bidding pre-qualifying requirements.
The seedling recipients should be: (1) members of organizations ready to use the seedlings; (2) organized into clusters of at least 100 hectares each for post-harvest facilities and economies of scale; and (3) have the financing to nurture these plantings until maturity. Ideally, they should have a prospective market and even market contracts. Some private companies can help provide these conditions with almost no government assistance.
Unfortunately, in the rush to provide seedlings quickly (and possibly gain political capital because elections are near), information has reached us that this HVC recommendation may be conveniently ignored. Thus, the seedlings may again go to waste.
PAFC monitoring
Last April 20, the PAFC Budget Committee met to discuss budget monitoring. This includes monitoring seedling dispersal.
At the start of the meeting, the recommended monitoring was limited to physical accomplishments. For example, a claimed percentage seedling dispersal achievement would be monitored in the field. But later, a private sector representative recommended that monitoring should also be done on whether the desired results of an activity were indeed achieved.
Monitoring
For the seedling example, we should see whether the seedlings were certified and the back-up system put in place.
This monitoring would help determine whether the system of dispersal is likely to increase farmer incomes.
Last April 13, the government and private sector met for the PCAF Orientation on the Grow Asia program of the World Economic Forum (WEF).
WEF Advisor Kavita Prakash-Mani stated that the small farmer would be the main beneficiary of this program.
But at the same forum, a farmer leader said the farmer would actually be the victim, rather than the beneficiary, of a specific instance when uncertified coffee seedlings would be dispersed without any back-up system.
It is imperative that we do not go through another cycle of insanity.
If we are to expect better results from the seedling dispersal program, we must implement and monitor the new system recommended by the HVC Committee.
Only then can we make significant progress toward inclusive growth.
(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, e-mail agriwatch_phil@yahoo.com or telefax (02) 8522112).