With the seeming shortage on rice and other agricultural products, aggravated by the highest inflation in nine years, a multisectoral group is organizing a food summit in support of the government’s food program.
According to Jerry Pelayo, former mayor of Candaba, Pampanga, and one of the lead convenors of the “Filipino Sama Ka Dito,” the summit is their group’s way of supporting the government as it strives to address the issue of rice shortage and rising prices of basic commodities.
“This is not the time for criticizing or blaming one another. It won’t do us any good. This is the time to unite behind the government as it faces head on the scourge of rice shortage and rising prices,” said Pelayo, who was responsible for the radical Farm-Fresh 25 initiative, inside the Clark Economic Zone.
Under the initiative, farm products are sold at 25 percent less than those offered outside of the Clark Economic Zone. Farm-Fresh 25, which has been in existence for 14 years, is managed not by traders but by farmers and poultry raisers.
Aside from Pelayo, the other members of the group are former Agriculture Secretary William Dar and UP Chancellor Ray Velasco. Honorio Soriano Jr., president of Pampanga State Agricultural University, has opened the campus for the event slated tentatively for the third week of October.
“The government, under President Rodrigo Duterte, has plenty of good managers and people at the helm, especially on the agriculture front, but they need the support of everyone and not the unnecessary criticisms from those with political interests out to exploit these problems,” Pelayo added.
According to the former mayor, they are targeting the participation of all those who have a stake in agriculture and aquaculture, including those involved in deep sea and fresh water fishing, piggery and poultry raising, vegetable farming, rice and cereal farming, traders and even academe, particularly the state agricultural colleges.
“There have been summits like this conducted before but academe had never participated. We need them as we try to address the problems of the farmers and the fishermen,” said Pelayo.
While the common problem for farmers are flooding and landslide, the more pressing ones are the availability of machineries and equipment and the lack of funds. Because of these, farmers tend to fall to loan sharks as some of them are prone to mortgage future harvests for extravagant fiesta celebrations and even to fund their vices like cockfighting.
“We need to equip them with management skills,” he said.
According to Pelayo, the agricultural sector had not been wanting in government support as presidents after presidents have been providing them with subsidies.
“The problem is how were these funds are managed,” Pelayo said.
He said that with the billions of pesos of subsidy poured into agriculture and the unique geographical position of the Philippines, the country should have been a major producer of agricultural products by now. “We are a tropical country blessed with the most suitable weather for agriculture as we only have summer and rainy season and no winter like some countries, and we could exploit these conditions to further enhance our agriculture,” he said.
Pelayo suggested that the government consider the idea of increasing funds for purchasing palay and increase its buying price for palay to compete with private traders, starting with utilizing the barangays as buying stations.
“The government needs to be competitive in buying palay from the farmers, as failure to do so would only result to the private traders controlling the rice trade,” he said.