The country’s sugarcane workers, derisively called “Sakada” who for ages have been paid a pittance for their hard work and have wallowed in poverty, may finally be lifted out of poverty.
A government program designed under the administration of President Rody Duterte may just turn farm workers and the “sakadas” into proud owners of multi-million peso worth of farm machineries and equipment.
The Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF) has recently launched a program called “Mekanikong Magsasaka” which aims to organise farmers and farm workers into a “service provider group” which would operate and maintain farm machineries and equipment.
For the “sakadas,” this would be a sweet vindication and liberation as they will now deal with the “hacienderos” as equals who will be needing their equipment to efficiently operate their sugarcane plantations.
Initially implemented for rice farm workers who are expected to be dislocated because of the national agricultural mechanisation program of President Rody Duterte, the concept of the “Mekanikong Magsasaka” was first implemented in M’lang, North Cotabato where a group of rice planters and harvesters organised by then Mayor Lito Piñol (now vice mayor) into a group called M’lang United Transplanters and Harvesters Organization (MUTHO) was awarded a Rice Combined Harvester.
The program was proven to be effective and successful as the former farm workers were now operating a multi-million equipment which not only serves rice farmers in the area and lowers post-harvest losses but has also lifted out the farm workers from the ignominy and bondage of poverty.
Last week, Davao Region Director Bong Oñate reported that twenty farmers and farm workers completed the “Mekanikong Magsasaka” skills training program in the Davao Region in cooperation with the Technical Skills Development Authority (TESDA).
After their training, they will be provided with farm equipment and machineries on a long-term loan program which they will use in serving the needs of rice and corn farms in their home province.
The program calls for the organisation of the farmers and farm workers into a service providers group in every province all over the country as the Duterte Administration aims to complete the mechanisation program of Philippine Agriculture and Fisheries over the next five years.
Last night, here in Bangkok, as Finance Secretary Carlos “Sonny” Dominguez and I discussed the problems besetting the country’s sugar industry, I presented to him the idea of organising the country’s sugarcane workers or sakadas into a group similar to the rice and corn farm workers so that they too could benefit from the “Mekanikong Magsasaka” Program of President Duterte.
Secretary Dominguez, himself a former Agriculture Secretary, immediately approved the idea and pledged his support to its implementation.
The “Mekanikong Magsasaka” Program for sugarcane workers will involve organising the “sakadas” into a service provider group, train them on how to operate tractors, sugarcane harvesters and other farm equipment and provide them the equipment on a long-term loan basis.
The DAF will also provide them with the initial operational capital and loaning program so they could feed their families while waiting for the payment of their services which I would like to be implemented under the “Plow-Now-Pay-Later” Program to help sugarcane farmers.
The “Mekanikong Magsasaka” Program for sugarcane workers will initially be implemented in the provinces of Davao del Sur where the Davao Sugar Cenrral Corporation (DASUCECO) operates, North Cotabato where the Cotabato Sugar Central Corporation (COSUCECO) is operating a sugar mill and in Bukidnon where the Bukidnon Sugar Corporation (BUSCO) and two other mills are also operating.
When proven successful, the program will be replicated in the Negros Island Region (NIR) where the sugarcane workers or “sakadas” are still paid as low as P80 to P100 a day and have been exploited by rich hacienderos for ages, and in other parts of the country where there are sugar mills in operation.
It is my dream as Secretary of Agriculture that in the near future, the sugarcane worker will no longer be the iconic burnt-skinned, barefoot and disheveled figure toiling under the hot sun in the sugarcane fields.
It would be the greatest day for Philippine agriculture when farm workers, especially the “sakadas” will be seen moving around the plantations directing and operating modern farm machineries and equipment that they proudly own and riding in pick-ups that they own.
This is the ultimate liberation of the farm worker and the “sakada” from ages of oppression.
(All photos in this post were downloaded from public websites accessible in the internet.)
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