Unity in agriculture

To address agriculture’s challenges in 2023, we must take immediate action. But this must be done with the private and public sectors in unison.

The private sector must stand united from production to marketing. The government, on the other hand, must address effectively the needs identified by the private sector. Such quick action and desirable unity was demonstrated in the cacao sector. It is a model for other sectors to follow during this new year.

All this time, the government has been promoting cacao production nationwide. But a major problem has cropped up. The Ivory Coast, the leading cacao producer in the world, is back to where it is good at doing (after being temporarily distracted by palm oil production). Such stiff competition spells peril rather than promise for our own industry.

Today, the breakeven volume for a cacao plant is a conservative 2 kilos. This is a far cry from our current average yield of 0.7 kilos.

Concerns

There are three major problems. The first is location. Cacao was promoted nationwide sans emphasis that it needs a certain kind of soil. In addition, it requires favorable climate conditions: not too much water, not too much heat (consistent with a climate change map). In many areas, cacao was planted where it faced failure.

The second is production. The choice of seedling, fertilizers and grafting technologies was often not science-based. Pest and shade controls were also lacking. Most importantly, the drying and fermentation of cacao beans did not benefit from proper technology transfer.

Third is marketing. For the domestic market, the segments of raw and processed cacao were not identified sufficiently and accurately. Exports have not penetrated new emerging markets in the Asia-Pacific region.

Action

The above problems were not addressed because there was lack of unity, both in the public and private sectors. The convergence of government agencies in the public-private Philippine Cacao Industry Council (PCIC) needed to be enhanced by the private sector. The agencies did not know the priority needs of the disjointed private sector.

To solve the problems, a Philippine Cacao Industry Association (PCIA) was organized last year by the private sector led by Armi Lopez Garcia. In collaboration primarily with the departments of Agriculture (DA), Trade and Industry (DTI), Science and Technology (DOST), and Interior and Local Government (DILG), PCIA conducted three cacao conferences in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. This culminated in a Nov. 24-25 National Cacao Congress, with the launching of a book on best cacao technology practices written and agreed to by 13 of our best cacao experts.

Trade Undersecretary Blesila Lantayona said it was the first time she saw the private sector so united in their vision and recommendations.

When Senior Agriculture Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban saw the more than 2,000 Congress participants and their impressive outputs, he ordered to take immediate action. Three weeks later, on December 14, with guidance from the DA, the PCIC and PCIA worked to produce a cacao strategic plan with urgent actions identified.

Among the outputs are: (1) cacao product centers will be established in every region; (2) accredited model cacao farms will serve as learning centers, using the congress’ technology recommendations; (3) state university and college partners will formulate and implement effective technology transfer; and (4) focused plans and programs will be implemented by the DA on production, DTI on domestic and export marketing, DOST on new technologies, DILG on localized governance. The Department of Education will also help promote cacao for livelihood and for snacks.

This kind of unity shown by cacao stakeholders should be replicated in other agriculture sectors. Only then can we achieve our elusive agriculture transformation.