A useful agri-fisheries vision for 2025

Agri-Fisheries 2025 (AF 2025) held its mid-year assessment and planning conference last Friday. This took on special significance because of Typhoon Pedring’s recent severe damage to agriculture. It has serious implications on our agriculture, climate change, and the new global scenario.

Background

AF 2025 was convened by Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala, Senate and House of Representatives Agriculture Committee Chairs Senator Francis Pangilinan and Congressman Mark Mendoza, and private sector leaders.

Commenting on this new tripartite legislative, executive and private sector thrust, Pangilinan said: “Our efforts are meant to give agri and fisheries the primacy that it deserves by focusing on improving the quality of life of our farmers and fisherfolk and, in doing so, building sustainable farming communities nationwide as a means to achieve food security.”

He added: “Only through strong public-private partnership can we achieve this. Our farmers and fisherfolk are the backbone of the nation.”

Pursuing this direction, 200 of the top leaders in agriculture, fisheries, and agribusiness met with Alcala, Pangilinan, Mendoza and other government officials last February.

The goal was to formulate short-, medium- and long-term plans to achieve a general 2025 vision of increased food security and improved farmer and fisherfolk incomes.

Today’s reality

In the past, the Philippines led its Asian neighbors in agricultural development. Today, we are in dire straits.

Our food security is threatened. We have transformed from a net food exporter into a net food importer, with the Philippines being the biggest rice importer in the world.

Our farming population is old and poor. The Filipino farmer’s average age is 57. His annual income is P27,000, well below the poverty line.

This is all happening when we are faced with four very serious global threats: food scarcity, a water shortage, an unfair trade regime, and climate change, which we recently experienced in Typhoon Pedring.

If we do not act wisely and quickly, and instead rely on short-term reactive and haphazard decisions, our nation may encounter even worse times. Thankfully, under the leadership of Secretary Alcala, all this is now changing.

Prior to last week’s conference, leaders from Alyansa Agrikultura, the Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food, and other organizations met to formulate a more detailed AF 2025 vision. This is necessary to guide the critical short- and medium-term decisions required for our agricultural development.

AF 2025 vision

The vision for the Philippines in 2025 is a nation where:

1. Agriculture is recognized as the backbone of our economy, with a vibrant rural sector demonstrating strong production and purchasing power, thus serving as a solid foundation for economic development where social justice and equitable income distribution will prevail.

2. Food security is ensured, with food products plentiful and accessible to all at affordable prices, and where our agricultural exports exceed imports because of well-conceived and properly implemented agricultural sector and sub-sector master plans.

3. Our farmers and fisherfolk are prosperous, organized, productive and youthful, providing the strongest link in an efficient agricultural supply chain, and where an empowered rural women sector catalyzes rapid economic development because of its high return on investment.

4. Public and private investments are plentiful and profitable, resulting in more agricultural and agro-industrial jobs because of improved rural infrastructure, efficient irrigation systems, accessible credit, and effective research and development, with widespread technology transfer programs which have successfully addressed global competition and climate change.

5. President Noynoy Aquino’s PPP approach to governance is extensively used, especially at the local government unit (LGU) level. This has promoted integrity as an antidote to corruption and competence as an antidote to ignorance, making the Philippines a premier competitive agricultural force in the global economy.

The vision is like a distant light that should illuminate the steps we must take in order to get there. Each component of this vision suggests certain actions that should be done immediately, many of which are not being done today.

Examples are the formulation of sector and sub-sector master plans, the widespread implementation of technology transfer programs, and the provision of accessible credit to increase production and improve farmer and fisherfolk incomes.

We recommend that this AF 2025 vision be used as our guiding light in institutionalizing our agricultural governance paradigm shift that we need so badly today.

(The author is chairman of Agriwatch, former secretary for presidential flagship programs and projects, and former undersecretary for Agriculture, and Trade and Industry. For inquiries and suggestions, e-mail [email protected] or telefax 8522112.)