Sona promises: Has Aquino improved agriculture?

A FARMER plants rice in San Manuel, Pangasinan province, a back-breaking work for which he often doesn’t even earn enough to feed his family. WILLIE LOMIBAO/ INQUIRER NORTHERN LUZON

In the last year of the Aquino administration, agriculture officials have yet to achieve self-sufficiency in staple food supply.

President Aquino announced in 2011 the campaign to attain sufficiency in rice production, mainly driven by the wish to end excessive importation of milled rice and its allegedly attendant corruption.

The President said “over-importation that only serves to benefit the selfish few” must end by the end of 2013, mainly by ensuring that “the rice served on every Filipino’s dinner table is planted here, harvested here and purchased here.”

READ: PH seen importing 1.8M tons of rice in 2015

In 2012, he said the annual production shortfall of 1.3 million tons of rice, which the country endured in the years of the Arroyo administration, had been slashed by a third to 860,000 tons in the first year of the Aquino administration.

The effort was going so good that, by the second year, the domestic shortfall was further reduced to 500,000 tons.

Back then, Aquino said the country would attain self-sufficiency in rice and might even be able to export grains, “if the weather cooperated.”

Typhoons

But the weather did not cooperate, with strong typhoons devastating crops and damaging irrigation facilities. One culprit in particular was Typhoon “Santi,” which ravaged the grains-producing Central Luzon in October 2013.

BACKSTORY: Storms cause P1.14B in crop damage

As the self-imposed deadline came, Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala admitted that local farms were producing only 97 percent to 98 percent of the country’s requirements.

After another year and a half, Assistant Secretary Edilberto de Luna said rice self-sufficiency was pegged at 96 percent. “That is the figure when the basis is local production and utilization,” said De Luna, who also serves as director of government’s national rice and corn program.

“But the figure would be lower if you use the Food and Agriculture Organization’s formula, which basically says the more you import, the less you are self-sufficient,” he added.

Food security office

The National Food Administration (NFA) has dropped its policy of minimal importation since it has been placed under the authority of the presidential assistant on food security and farm modernization, an office created in 2014 and headed by former Sen. Francis Pangilinan.

In 2014, the NFA shipped in a total of 1.3 million tons. So far this year, the agency has contracted foreign suppliers for shipments totaling 750,000 tons.

READ: NFA OKs $100M rice importation from Vietnam

“While [the Department of Agriculture] admits that we have not yet reached the sufficiency level that we all wanted, we believe that we are indeed on the right track, having attained historical high rice harvest every year,” De Luna said.

“We are assured of the continuous cooperation of the Filipino rice farmers who have been working with us (and trusting the government rice program, more importantly) in the challenges of not just improving yields but in increasing their incomes,” he added.

De Luna said that with annual palay production jumping 20 percent over the past four years from 15.77 million tons in 2010 to 18.97 million tons in 2014, “what came to us during the administration of President Aquino was also one for the books.”

As for irrigation services, authority over the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) has also been transferred to Pangilinan’s office.

Iloilo dam

One of the President’s promises in 2013 was the implementation of the second phase of the Jalaur River Multipurpose Project (JRMP 2) in Iloilo. Two years later, the NIA is still doing consultations for the P11.2-billion project, for which the agency has yet to secure the required consent from affected indigenous peoples.

JRMP 2 is touted as the first large-scale reservoir dam outside Luzon, intended to provide year-round irrigation to 31,840 hectares of rice farms, 6.6 megawatts of hydroelectric power and bulk water for the needs of Iloilo.

READ: Aquino: 1 of 3 Iloilo dams to be finished by 2016

Coconut infestation

Also in 2013, the President talked about increasing the area of coconut farms intercropped with other cash-earners like vegetables and coffee. But the government’s efforts to revive the domestic coconut industry had to hurdle the devastation of Supertyphoon “Yolanda,” which felled or rendered unproductive millions of trees.

There was also the infestation of the coconut scale insect, which ravaged 1.2 million trees in the Calabarzon as well as certain parts of Basilan province.

Even then, efforts to help coconut farmers tap new revenue streams have gained support from the private sector.

READ: War against coconut pest starts in Quezon province

Coffee growing

Last year, Nestlé Philippines Inc. (NPI) signed up to take part in the drive of the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) to promote coffee growing as an additional source of income for coconut farmers.

NPI is helping in PCA’s Coconut-Coffee-Based Enterprise Development (Cocobed) project, which involves the provision of high-grade planting materials for coffee farming in feasible regions as an intercrop for coconut. The project kicked off with coffee-planting rites in the provinces of Zamboanga Sibugay and Zambaoanga del Sur.

The government has also stepped up projects to provide farmers with modern equipment, enhanced irrigation systems, more farm-to-market roads and training programs.

According to the NIA, as of December 2014, it had brought irrigation services for the first time to 12,974 ha of farms, or 57 percent of the target 22,614 ha.

The agency also restored services to 3,707 ha of farms, 84 percent of the 4,406-ha target.

READ: College grads energize PH rice farming

Farm-to-market roads

As for farm modernization, which the President mentioned last year, the agriculture department has lined up P9.7 billion worth of farm-to-market roads under the World Bank-backed Philippine Rural Development Project (PDRP), which the multilateral lender approved in August 2014.

The roads represent 1,121 kilometers that were among 195 subprojects that various local government units have proposed to be included in the P27.5-billion PDRP’s infrastructure development component.

In terms of farm machines, De Luna said that from 2011 to 2014, the Department of Agriculture provided 21,943 units of production equipment, such as tractors, transplanters and tillers worth P2.38 billion to 13,746 farmers’ groups.

There were also 32,393 post-harvest equipment like harvesters, threshers and reapers worth P1.44 billion provided to 6,193 farmers’ groups and 5,770 post-production facilities worth P6.6 billion given to 5,770 farmers’ groups.

READ: PH ranks 72nd in global food security index

Rice hoarders

Last year, the President lashed out at “greedy rice hoarders [who were] stockpiling their supplies in order to sell them when prices eventually rise.”

Following that, the NFA cracked the whip by making surprise inspections of warehouses in coordination with the Philippine National Police.

BACKSTORY: Government seizes NFA rice hoarded by traders

But the effort hit a snag when one trader, whose warehouse was shuttered following an NFA-PNP raid, accused NFA officials of extorting from him millions of pesos to allow him to reopen his business.

In a sworn statement submitted to the National Bureau of Investigation in August 2014, businessman Jomerito Soliman said then NFA Administrator Arthur Juan had told him that P5 million each was meant for Interior Secretary Mar Roxas and Secretary Pangilinan, and another P5 million for Juan himself.

All three officials were present during the raid. According to the NFA, the warehouse was shuttered because animal feeds were being mixed with imported Thai rice in the warehouse with the intention of passing off the mixture “sinandomeng” rice for sale to the public.

Juan resigned in September 2014, citing health problems as the reason for his stepping down.