INCOMING agriculture secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol has vowed to make entrepreneurs out of farmers and at the same time warned middlemen and traders against the “monster” that was their “insatiable greed.”
Piñol, in his Facebook page, lamented that traders—who buy from farmers and sell to end-consumers—“control and even to some extent manipulate” the country’s food supply chain as they determine prices of commodities.
Thus, “farmers are poor and the consumers are sad as they stretch their budget for food but the traders rake in the money, ride in luxury vehicles and lead lavish lifestyle(s),” he said.
The former Cotabato governor said that amid “the blatant anomalies in agricultural pricing and selling,” palay was bought at P17.50 a kilo but the grains, after milling, sell at almost P40 a kilo for the good quality varieties.
Also, hogs are bought at P90 a kilo at the farm, but pork sells at as much as P150 kilo in the wet market.
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Piñol listed down measures with which he intended to put in place instead of current government efforts that “have largely been ineffective (in the face of traders’) cartels.”
For one, he said the Department of Agriculture should “support the farmers and fisherfolk to ensure that their cost of production is lower and their yield or catch is increased.”
Also, to lessen the dominance of middlemen in the produce market, he will turn farmers and fishers into small entrepreneurs by giving them direct access to the market.
For example, rice farmers could be organized and given the necessary support so that they will have their own rice processing centers at the farm level, he said.
The farmers could then be linked up with big corporations who could buy the rice directly to be supplied to their employees.
In particular, Piñol said government employees could in the future be granted a monthly allowance of one sack of rice bought directly from farmers groups.
“I understand your business but do not be too greedy,” he told traders. “Just remember this, we have a President who thinks out of the box. If you cannot control your greed, you may end up holding an empty sack.”