FOR THE 12 million employed in the agriculture and fishery sectors, candidates running for president should answer key questions that would help them assess who they would vote for. These questions were suggested by five coalitions that united for the first time last December 2015.
Called the Agri-Fisheries Alliance, these coalitions represent five different major agriculture stakeholders. They are: Alyansa Agrikultura (farmers and fisherfolk), Philipine Chamber of Agriculture and Food (agribusiness), Coalition for Agriculture Modernization in the Philippines (academe and science), Pambansang Koalisyon ng mga Kababaihan sa Kanayunan (rural women), and Agriculture Fisheries 2025 (leaders of major agriculture stakeholders).
Three months ago, the groups told the candidates the current situation when it comes to rural poverty and agriculture growth. Agriculture growth in the Philippines averaged only 1.5 percent, less than half of the government’s 4-percent target. This pales in comparison to the industrial sector’s growth of 6.4% percent. For sure, agriculture has been left behind and the result is non-inclusive growth.
The presidential candidates should answer two general questions: (1) What is your overall plan for agriculture? (2) If there are three actions you would undertake that the previous government did not do (or did not do enough of), what would they be?
In addition to these questions, the five coalitions unanimously agreed on priority agriculture areas that can be grouped into three categories: governance, services, and agriculture reform.
On governance: Will you require the submission of agriculture sub-sector roadmaps with a corresponding public-private sector team responsible for their implementation? This way, there will be a clear, unified direction that is sorely missing today.
Will you institute a globally-accepted management system (such as ISO 9000) in all the Department of Agriculture (DA) units like in the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI)? This way, implementation will be much more effective, and corruption automatically detected.
For stakeholder participation, will you implement the legally mandated role of the public-private sector Agriculture Fisheries Councils (AFCs) with the appropriate high level government participation so that actions, rather than just discussions, take place? Will you allow these AFCs to secure the list of DA-funded projects so they can perform their legally mandated function of monitoring the P90-billion DA budget so that it is not diverted to waste and corruption?
On services: Effective agriculture extension is hardly seen in the countryside. Will you expand the role of the Agriculture Training Institute (ATI)?
For credit, will you provide more credit access to farmers and fisherfolk? In 2014, the Land Bank of the Philippines provided only 9 percent of its P386-billion loanable fund to this mandated sector. Will you take steps to allow Landbank to provide significantly more and even subsidize small farmers and fisherfolk?
Since climate change is upon us, will you enable the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation (PCIC) to shell out more than the measly P1.1 billion they gave to small farmers last year?
On agriculture reform: For a level playing field, will you provide enough subsidies to our farmers and fisherfolk the way our foreign competitors are doing?
Smuggling in the country has drastically increased. Underreported imports (an indicator of smuggling) increased from 6 percent in 2005 to 36 percent in 2014. Will you form a Cabinet-level, public-private Anti-Smuggling Oversight Committee so that this smuggling problem is decreased?
Will you ensure that other reforms actually benefit the small farmers and fisherfolk? This is in areas such as agrarian reform that should have support services, the fisherfolk settlement program that should finally be implemented, food self-sufficiency that should have the necessary competitive-enhancing measures, and the coconut levy fund and assets that should benefit the farmers instead of being used and carelessly privatized to benefit other parties.
The answers of the presidential candidates will aid the 12 million employed in agriculture and fisheries so they can choose the candidate who can best free them from the rural poverty that today plagues the countryside.
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 8522112.