The recent “Onion Crisis” which saw the price of red bulb onions rise to an incredible P500 per kilo is another painful lesson that the Philippines should not depend on importation of commodities local farmers could produce.
Onion is grown in Nueva Ecija, Nueva Viscaya, Mindoro, Iloilo and even Mindanao but the expansion of Onion farms is dampened by the yearly flooding of imports from China which admittedly are cheaper.
Ang problema ng pagiging dependent on importation ay kapag itinaas ng foreign suppliers ang presyo, walang magagawa ang gobyerno kasi kulang ang local supply.
Ganito din ang mangyayari sa presyo ng bigas kapag hindi natin baguhin ang Rice Tariffication Law, kokontrolin ng mga importers at traders ang presyuhan.
Maraming mga areas sa Pilipinas ang puedeng taniman ng Pula at Puti na Sibuyas dahil ang kailangan lang ng bulb onion ay temperature range of 13-25 degrees Centigrade and all types of soil such as sandy loam, silt loam and heavy clay soils with a pH range between 5.8-6.5 and good drainage.
When the Philippines was not flooded with cheap imported Onions, the production was high allowing farmers to even export shallots to Indonesia.
Ano ang mga problema ng local bulb onion industry?
1. Kakulangan ng access to credit ng mga Onion farmers which was addressed with the launching of the Production Loan Easy Access (PLEA) program when I was Secretary of Agriculture but this was discontinued when I left the Department in 2019;
2. Lack of technical support, especially in disease control and prevention in traditional bulb onion farming areas like Nueva Ecija;
3. Lack of cold storage facilities where harvested Onions during peak season could be kept to protect the farmers from the exploitation of traders who own most of the cold storage facilities in Central Luzon;
4. Absence of clear government policies to support local producers and heavy dependence on importation which causes a drop in prices to as low as P10 per kilo during peak season.
Hindi malulutas ang mga problemang ito hangga’t nananatili sa kamay ng mga traders at middlemen ang marketing and distribution ng mga basic food commodities.
The DA built several cold storage facilities owned and operated by the farmers cooperatives, like the recently inaugurated Miag-ao Cold Storage Facility in Iloilo Province, but in the absence of clear policies on how to nurture and support a fledgeling industry like Onion farming, it will be difficult for the farmers to compete.
We have to reform our marketing system and as I had proposed earlier, there is a need to revive the Food Terminal Inc., enhance its coverage to be able to establish Regional Food Consolidation Centers to buy, process, store and distribute basic food commodities like bulb Onions.
With an assured price of P40 per kilo to be delivered to the Regional Food Consolidation Centers where the Onions could be stored, Filipino farmers could produce enough Onions for this country.
One of the major agricultural reforms which I intend to introduce should I be elected to the Senate would be the establishment of an FTI-operated Regional Food Consolidation Centers in the production areas and Farmers and Fishermen’s Outlets in the big cities like Metro Manila and Cebu so that consumers could buy fresh farm products at a lower price.
#KungGustoMaramingParaan!
#GovernanceIsCommonSense!
(Photos of the Onion Production and Cold Storage in Miag-ao, Iloilo were downloaded from the DA Facebook page.)
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