Biyaheng Bukid Cordillera A VEGETABLE TRADING POST SANS FARMERS AND VEGGIES

By Manny Piñol

As the nation-wide journey “Biyaheng Bukid continued in La Trinidad, Benguet yesterday, I saw a monument of a government blunder repeated over and over again.

In the vast expanse of the compound of the Benguet State University sits a modern agricultural facility called the Benguet Agri-Pinoy Trading Centre costing an estimated P800-million of government money where the Cordillera’s vegetable farmers are supposed to conduct trade with the lowland buyers.

Except for a few boxes of vegetables, the facility, which I must admit is spectacular, is empty in spite of the fact that as early as December last year, it was already ready for occupancy.

The reason?

The farmers are resisting efforts to move their products from the old vegetable trading post also in La Trinidad which is owned by the local government.

I sat down with Department of Agriculture acting Cordillera director Lorenzo Caranguian and the officer who is in charge of the BAPTC, Danilo Daguio, yesterday and during the short conversation I was able to confirm my initial views.

The project whose concept is admirable was started without the needed social preparation and consultations with the vegetable farmers and the traders.

Here are some of the things I discovered:

1. Vegetable farmers are reluctant to move over to the new trading post because they are dictated upon by the “disposers,” the moneyed people who finance the farmers – from seeds to fertilizers and even personal needs like enrolment fees and everything. The disposers decide for the farmers and they obviously earn more than the farmers. In some instances, they even come up with arrangements where the disposer finances the whole farm operations and gets 50% of the net income of the farmer.

2. The farmers cannot defy the “disposers” because most of them own the trucks used in hauling the vegetables from the farms to the trading post.

3. There is pressure from businessmen, who obviously lent money too to some of the vegetable farmers, who own stores in the old vegetable trading post because the moment the vegetable trading is transferred to the new site, they would certainly lose a lot of money.

So, this is now the case of government wanting to help the farmers but the latter are reluctant to accept the offered help because it would drastically change the way things are being done.

In short, the BAPTC is another perfect example of the planning blunder committed by government technocrats over and over again where they design and implement projects without conducting the needed social preparation.

The DA has been dispersing imported sheep without even training, or even just introducing, farmer-beneficiaries on how to raise and take care of sheep.

In a ranch in Batangas now, there are reportedly 300 heads of Hotstein dairy cattle which were imported supposedly to be given to dairy farmers but there are no takers because there was no prior social preparation.

When I was Governor of North Cotabato, I complained against the practice of the DA to allocate funds to projects which were not needed by the farmers in my province.

I was one of the first who asked the DA, then under Secretary Ed Angara, to allow us to draft our own agricultural programs based on the actual needs of our farming sector.

So, what did I tell the officer in charge of the BAPTC yesterday?

I instructed him to design for me a credit and financing scheme which would be offered to vegetable farmers who will move their trading to the BAPTC.

The amount of loan to be extended would be based on the amount of money he owes the disposer but of course taking into consideration the size of his farm which would be the basis of his capacity to pay.

I also suggested that there should be a one-year moratorium on the payment of the tariff to be imposed on every kilo of vegetable traded in the centre.

This is quite a tall and challenging order but this is what President Rody Duterte would like to happen to this country – to free the Filipinos from the bondage of debt and poverty.

In fact, if you remember President Duterte even warned that he will deport Indian nationals involved in the 5-6 lending scheme which drives down poor Filipinos into greater indebtedness and poverty.

Following the guidance of President Duterte, henceforth, there will be no projects to be implemented by the agriculture department without consulting the farmers and the fisherfolk.

Remember this: scholars, academicians and technocrats may know the theoretical solution to problems but the farmers and the fishermen alone know what they need.

#Changeiscoming.