To avert hunger! Let’s Grow Our Own Food; Just Provide Funds, Support

Veteran Davao journalist Serafin Ledesma, Jr. yesterday issued a dire warning that the country could face a period of hunger as the vast agricultural areas of Luzon were ravaged by a series of typhoons which also affected Vietnam, our main supplier of imported rice.

Jun Ledesma’s warning is real but his recommendation that I should be brought back to the Department of Agriculture may not be a wise move because with only 19 months left for the Duterte Presidency there is nothing much that a new Secretary could do.

All that we need to do now is just to get our acts together and work as one.

There are immediate measures which could be done to plug the holes and ensure sufficient food supply for the country in these trying times.

1. Strengthen NFA, Ensure Food Supply:

The National Food Authorty (NFA) should exercise its original mandate as a food agency instead of just being a rice buffer stocking agency of government.

Emasculating the NFA simply because of allegations of corruption was the worst feature of the Rice Tariffication Law. (If allegations of corruption were to be made basis in disbanding an agency then DPWH, Customs, BIR and even the PNP should also go.)

The NFA’s function in these times of calamity should cover all other basic commodities which our people need – rice, vegetables, fish, poultry and meat.

Let NFA buy these basic food items and offer farmers and fishermen a good price for their and in less than a year, we will have all the food we need.

The NFA should build and operate cold storage facilities or Food Banks in calamity-prone areas, especially island provinces like Catanduanes, Masbate and Marinduque.

With sufficient funds, the cold storage companies could build these Food Banks well before the onset of the next typhoon season.

2. Swing South for Food Production:

Provinces which are not prone to natural disasters and calamities like typhoons, should be the focus of an aggressive food production program.

Topping the list of priority areas for the Southern Swing Program which was proposed in the 2019 Budget of the DA (but was not funded along with the Samar Island Development Program) are Mindanao Provinces, especially the vastly untapped Bangsamoro Region.

Next in line are Visayas Provinces, especially Samar Island, Leyte, Negros, Bohol, Panay, Palawan, Mindoro and Cebu.

3. Stop Dole-Outs, Cash Aids:

The billions of pesos being distributed by the DA as cash aid and dole outs are obvious attempts to placate farmers who are angry at the very low prices of their produce, especially rice.

The problem with this program is it does not cover all stakeholders of the rice industry as it is only given to farmers with 2-hectares or less.

What about those who own more than 2-hectares; the rice farm workers? the turtle tiller and tractor operators? the kargadores and others who are affected by the low prices and lack of activities in the sector?

Cash Aids, dole-outs and even subsidies are political decisions, therefore not sustainable.

Instead of squandering billions for these programs, an easy access credit program should be institutionalized.

Actually, this was started in June 2017 with the launching of the Production Loan Easy Access Program (PLEA) which offered loans without collaterals to agriculture stakeholders at 2% interest per annum.

The repayment was good at over 90% with the Igorot farmers posting a 100% loan payment but a thunderous voice in the Senate said loans should be handled by the banks only, thus the PLEA Program was discontinued.

4. Food Grows Where Water Flows:

There are three things a farmer needs to produce food: Soil, Sunlight and Water which we are all abundant of.

Water is the most critical component because nothing grows without water.

About half of the 4.9-million hectares of rice harvest area is not served by irrigation services and to fill up the rice requirements of our growing populating, at least 80,000-hectares must be irrigated every year.

The NIA could only irrigate 30,000-hectares every year and I had repeatedly stressed this when I was DA Secretary along with the unheeded request that NIA should be placed under the DA again.

Because of that handicap, I talked to President Rody Duterte and asked his approval to negotiate for a loan with Israel for the Solar-Powered Irrigation System (SPIS) Project.

The SPIS Project worth P44-B funded through a soft loan by an Israeli Bank wouldl irrigate an estimated 500,000-hectares of rice and high-value crops farms.

It has been two years since the inception of the program and the formal offer from Israel for a loan fund, still the NEDA-ICC has not acted on this proposal.

It is not too late though. If NEDA-ICC approves the project before the end of the year, it could be completed before the end of the term of President Rody Duterte.

5. Let’s Grow Our Own Food

The recent typhoons, Climate Change and the COVID-19 Pandemic have shown that relying on our neighbors for our food supplies could be disastrous.

We must produce our own food at whatever cost or at the very least, keep our production volume of critical commodities like rice at the level where, in case of a disruption in the global food supply chain, we could easily and immediately boost our own production.

It is time for our economists to stop worrying about inflation numbers and be more concerned of the specter of hunger haunting the country.

Believe me, if only we could focus on helping our farmers and fishermen produce more by giving them a fair price for their labor, food production would reach a level where prices would be stable and the economists would no longer worry about Quarterly inflation numbers.

This is the umpteenth time I am presenting this argument for Food Self-Sufficiency and I hope our policy makers and economic managers would now listen.

I know I have been ridiculed in the past for saying this but let me again repeat: We have the soil, sunlight and water to grow and produce our own food.

We could be rice sufficient even without expanding the existing rice farms by simply improving productivity through the use of high-yielding seeds, irrigation and fertilization.

We must be rice sufficient because it is our staple food.

What is needed now is for our policy makers, economic managers and key legislators to have faith in the capability of our farmers and fishermen to produce food for the country.

Let us give them a fair return because “The Key to Greater Productivity is Profitability.”

As a government official, the line which I hate the most to say is “I told you so” for it simply means that our policy makers and budget planners failed to heed practical recommendations.

I hope and pray that this time around, they could and would read the signs of the times.

#LetsGrowOurOwnFood!

#SelfSufficiencyBestFoodSecurity!

#AchieveFoodSovereignty!