No More Age-Old Exploitation, Oppression Of Filipino Farmers, Fishermen Under Duterte Presidency
Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary
Manny Piñol posted on his Facebook page that ending of age-old exploitation and
oppression could prove to be a historic day for the Filipino farmers and fisher
folks, undoubtedly the poorest among the country’s economic sectors.
“The Senate Committee on Agriculture
chaired by Senator Francis Pangilinan will conduct a hearing on several issues
affecting Philippine rice farming, including the lifting of the Quantitative
Restrictions (QR) on imported rice,” stated Sec. Piñol.
“As one of the resource persons
during the hearing, I will explain why the lifting of the QR, which would
result in the flooding of the local market with imported rice, could work
against the best interest not only of the rice farming sector but the country
as a whole,” he added.
The Agriculture Secretary said that
more than that, he will also bring to the attention of our legislators the
age-old exploitation and oppression of the Filipino farmer and fishermen.
“Let us start with the rice and
corn farmer first,” explained Sec. Piñol.
“The average grains farmer owns a
small landholding, uses a carabao in plowing his field, borrows money from the
middleman or trader instead of the bank, dries his grains along the highway or
a small concrete pavement and is always at the mercy of the trader when selling
his produce.
“His pathetic situation is a result
of the failure of government to hasten mechanization in agriculture, provide
easy access financing, establish post-harvest facilities and the inability of
the National Food Authority to stabilize the buying price of rice and corn.
“During a favourable harvest season
when his harvest would average 4 metric tons per hectare, he could earn about
P60,000 against expenses estimated at P30,000.
“It would be a disaster for him,
however, if typhoons, floods or drought damaged his crops because the money he
owed from the trader would balloon due to usurious interest rates.
“The trader who buys the farmer’s
palay at P15 per kilo and sells the milled rice at P40 per kilo earns a gross
of P104,000 from the 4 metric tons of palay produced by the farmer.
“The trader makes a net profit of
at least P34,000 not including the rice bran which sells at P12 per kilo and
even the rice hulls which are also being bought by plantations now for mulching
and also for power generation.
“There are no typhoons, drought,
floods, tungro or plant diseases that would threaten the earnings of the
trader.
“The greatest irony of this all is
that most of the traders borrow money from the Land Bank of the Philippines
(LBP) for their grains procurement and this happens because the farmer does not
know how to access the credit facilities of the bank.”
Meanwhile, he said that the ordinary
fisherman, on the other hand, more often than not does not even own a fishing
boat. He “rides” with other boat owners or rents one at a cost of P250 per day.
“On a lucky day, he could catch 10
kilos, he may earn P100 a day. He will go home with nothing when the seas are
rough,” Sec. Piñol noted.
“Worse, the fisherman does not even
have access to a cold storage facility or even just sufficient supply of ice.
“Thus, in many of the country’s
fishing communities, you would see women and children waving big fish for sale
to motorists passing by.
“Statistics show that 40% of the
fish catch of fishermen are spoiled because of the absence of ice and cold
storage facilities.”
The Agri Chief said that unless the
corruption in the agriculture sector is stopped and government invests heavily
in agriculture and fisheries, the sad fate of the farmers and fishermen will
continue.
“The hearing today could be the
start of a national awakening and when that happens, the Presidency of Rody
Duterte could go down in history as the Golden Era of Philippine agriculture
and fisheries,” he added.
No More Age-Old Exploitation, Oppression Of Filipino Farmers, Fishermen Under Duterte Presidency
Reviewed by Yen
on
January 11, 2017
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