A few hours after I took my oath for my new post, I embarked on a 2-day land journey back home to Mindanao.
This is the same route which I took in reverse 3 years and four months ago shortly after then President-elect Rody Duterte named me as his Agriculture Secretary.
My head then was full of thoughts on how I would confront the problems besetting Philippine Agriculture.
My heart was furiously pumping with excitement at the thought that at long last, with a farmer at the helm of the Department of Agriculture, the dreams and aspirations of farmers and fisherfolks would be realized.
Some of those dreams like free irrigation, easy access credit, programs to lift farmers and fishermen from poverty and laying the foundations of a sustainable agriculture to ensure that there will be food for the next generation, were realized.
For the first time, almost all sectors of Philippine Agriculture crafted their road maps for the next 10 years.
Also, for the first time in decades, the fisheries sector posted positive growth in 2018, thanks to the relentless campaign against illegal fishing and the programs for fish conservation and closed fishing season.
There were failures too especially in my effort to convince our finance managers to allocate more budget for agriculture.
Instead of heeding President Rody Duterte’s pronouncements to earmark more funds for agriculture, the Agriculture Department’s share of the budget pie steadily went down from P56-B in 2016 to only P49-B in 2019.
In spite this Agriculture grew by 4% in 2017 and rice production made a historic breakthrough with a harvest of 19.28-M metric tons, the highest in the history of the Philippine rice industry.
Agri growth dropped to about 1% in 2018 because of disasters but the average growth under the Duterte Administration for two years was still the highest in 10 years.
Rice production was still at 19.06-million metric tons, still very much higher than the last harvest of the Aquino administration of 17.6-million metric tons.
The critics wanted consistent positive performance numbers forgetting the very nature of Agriculture which is its unpredictability.
Unless you grow food or raise animals in controlled and confined environment like a green house or tunnel vents for poultry and hogs, everything will really be unpredictable because of the influence of climatic aberrations.
One does not need to be an agriculture expert or a doctorate degree holder to appreciate that fact.
Today, I take the long road home happy with the thought that while I suffered setbacks in my advocacy for a better life for farmers and fishermen, there is now a greater awareness on the importance of agriculture to the national well-being.
I decided to take this arduous journey home because I would like to compare the picture and the landscape of the countryside today to the one I saw 3 years and four months ago.
For me, the greatest proof that government programs are effective is in the visible changes in people’s lives.
More than the quarterly economic numbers, pictures of children going to school in neat clothes or the lush growth of palay along the highway and the abundance of fish in the talipapa by the roadside are the best economic indicators.
Now, if only our policy makers and perhaps our legislators could take long trips to the countryside, perhaps we will have better answers to the woes of our people.
(Map shows the long route from Quezon City to Davao. First two photos show a brief stop in Sto. Tomas, Batangas for an early dinner while the last two photos were taken in May 2016 during my long trip to Manila shortly after Ptesident Duterte announced that I was the new Agriculture Secretary.)
More Stories
Trump Presidency Boon To Philippine Agriculture
Mindanao Fruit Fest Scheduled Sept. 2025
DA, MinDA, LGU! MinDA Targets Tribal Areas For Highland Rice Farming