THE country’s farm infrastructure backlog, estimated at more than half a trillion pesos, is a major stumbling block to improving farmers’ productivity, as the lack of warehouses and cold-storage facilities has made it difficult to minimize postharvest losses.
Agriculture Undersecretary for Regulations Zanzamin L. Ampatuan made this initial estimate, citing data based on the Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI) logistics services road map.
Ampatuan said improving the country’s farm infrastructure and logistics would cut farmers’ postharvest losses and help them double their income. This, he said, is in line with President Duterte’s marching orders to improve the performance of the farm sector.
“[Improving] the performance of the agriculture sector and its contribution to the economy” were stressed by the President, while Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar gave him an order “to increase the income of farmers and production, which should ideally grow by 3 percent annually,” Ampatuan told the BusinessMirror in an interview.
Based on the DTI’s blueprint, Ampatuan said the required investment to improve the country’s farm infrastructure is about P535 billion, of which P330 billion should be allotted to build more warehouses.
He added that P100 billion is needed for the construction of rural roads, another P100 billion for cold-storage facilities and P5 billion for container yards directly servicing the agriculture sector.
“This is our current backlog,” said Ampatuan, who is also the Department of Agriculture’s focal person for its “Build, Build, Build” program. He said the DA is currently conducting an “inventory” of the farm sector’s infrastructure backlog to update existing data and determine the required investments.
The study, expected to be completed by March, would provide the DA a “whole picture” of the problem and allow it to determine key interventions to wipe out the backlog.
Ampatuan said the DA would craft a “wish list” and a priority list of programs and projects to be funded by government using the results of their three-month study.
“[By March] we will have a total picture of the logistical movement of commodities [in the country]. We are looking at the extent of [infrastructure support] being provided for agricultural products, particularly for perishable goods,” he said.
Ampatuan said the DA will craft an initial three-year agricultural logistics program involving various interventions, such as the establishment of cold storage facilities, warehouses and roads, to cut farmers’ postharvest losses by half from the current estimated 40 percent in fruits and vegetables.
Other initial infrastructure projects may include the construction of rain catchment facilities and other technologies to reduce wastage.
Ampatuan said the national government should shoulder the expenses for small-scale, farm-level logistics projects while big-ticket ones must be financed by the private sector.
“We have a problem with postharvest, particularly the handling of commodities especially perishable goods, as wastage reach as high as 40 percent for vegetables and fruits. Logistics is something that the government should invest in,” he said.
“Because the intervention of the private sector in terms of logistics is not that aggressive for raw products unlike in processed goods,” he added.
Infrastructure development is one of the key areas that the current DA leadership is focusing on to improve “‘farmers’ linkages to the urban/domestic and export market.”
Lamentillo: Convergence
In a roundtable with the BusinessMirror on Monday, Build, Build, Build Committee Chairman Anna Mae Lamentillo said the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) has established a convergence program with various departments, such as the DA, to collaborate on specific infrastructure projects, such as farm-to-market roads (FMRs), which would benefit farmers.
Lamentillo cited the rehabilitation of the Pigalo Bridge in Isabela as one of the results of the DPWH and DA’s “convergence” initiative. The bridge cut the time for transporting agricultural goods to just five minutes from the previous 24 hours.
She also agreed with Ampatuan’s statement that certain local infrastructure projects, such as FMRs, should be bankrolled by government, as these aim to make travel faster in farming communities.
Image credits: CESAR M. PERANTE