We Have To Push The Cooperative Development Authority First, To Push PH Farm Consolidation!

Should we go ahead with farm consolidation as Secretary of Agriculture William Dar wants? This policy of the Department of Agriculture, DA, appears to be in contradiction with the dictates of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, CARP, of the Department of Agrarian Reform, DAR. Nonetheless, expert Fermin D Adriano declares that CARP has been inutile, saying “Agrarian Reform Has Failed The Small Farmers” (20 August 2020, Manila Times):

Poverty incidence in the rural areas remains high at around 40 percent, twice higher than the average national poverty incidence. This means that despite distributing more than 5 million hectares of around 10 million hectares of cultivable lands in the country, agrarian reform failed to make a real dent on poverty and (promote) greater equality.

Quote: “Twice higher than the average national poverty incidence.” Agrarian reform in the Philippines has utterly failed!

So, “Agriculture Secretary William Dar has made farm consolidation or clustering a vital component of his industrialization and modernization agenda for Philippine agriculture.” Mr Dar clarifies that “farm consolidation does not mean consolidation of land ownership but only of production, processing, and marketing activities.” This should result in economies of scale and higher and more sustainable returns for everyone. (consolidation image from DA CAR[1])

Mr Adriano says, “The obvious vehicles for farm consolidation are the farmers’ cooperatives or associations.” Sir, they are not the same. I believe in farmer cooperatives, FCs, but not in farmer associations, FAs. I have seen how the FAs are dictated upon by their Presidents; in my province Pangasinan, one FA President keeps all the equipment in his residence! And yes, the FAs are “organized to access the unending stream of subsidies from government.”

With the FAs, government is cultivating the mendicant attitude of our farmers!

So, what do we do? Mr Adriano says, “The task is to impart an agribusiness perspective to these (groups).” I agree. I see that the initial problem is we have to teach the Cooperative Development Authority, CDA, which oversees cooperatives, to promote business-oriented thinking among the CDA leaders first, so that they can promote the same among the cooperatives.

That’s a tall order!

Mr Adriano says:

Indeed, the problems of agriculture are complex and interrelated. Undeniably, they cannot be solved solely by the Department of Agriculture. The agency has to collaborate with other government departments such as Trade and Industry (processing and marketing), Public Works and Highways (roads and bridges) and Transportation (transport/logistics), and CDA (cooperatives), among others, to uplift the welfare of small farmers. This is a huge challenge that many fail to understand, much less appreciate.

Not to forget science, he says:

Science will be needed to systematically examine the problems involved per stage of the agricultural process (i.e., input and production, processing, transport and marketing) and offer realistic solutions to each of them. Only then can the agricultural sector progress.

Yes to all that. But we must begin right – with the CDA learning agribusiness and imparting the same to the FCs.

Then poor farmers can march to prosperity!@517

 


[1]http://car.da.gov.ph/gawad-saka-guidelines/

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