FARMERS’ cooperatives and associations in 16 municipalities of Antique recently received millions worth of farm equipment from the Department of Agriculture (DA). The equipment – four-wheel tractors, hand tractors, floating tillers, rice precision seeders, and harvesters, among others – could help Antiqueño farmers increase their produce faster and in more convenient ways.
The Philippines is basically an agricultural country, although through the years vast swaths of agricultural lands have been converted to industrial, commercial or residential use. Still, agriculture remains an economic driver, and thus holds the key to the country’s economic development and progress.
But what is the future of Philippine agriculture?
What makes this concern doubly significant is the recent study of international advocacy group Oxfam, warning that rice yield in the Philippines will drop from 50 percent to 70 percent because of climate change. It said rice-producing countries like the Philippines will be hardest hit by climate change, as a one percent rise in temperature will result in a 10 percent drop in rice production every year from hereon.
At present, the government’s policy makes the country overly dependent on imported rice. It brings in cheap rice to augment the country’s food supply, instead of initiating programs that will actually help boost rice production and for the country to achieve the status of being rice self-sufficient.
Farmers are concerned on how the government deals with, say, a food crisis, the poor performance of the agriculture sector in the face of the global economic crisis and climate change which adversely affected the farmers. The agriculture sector experiences slower growth due to several factors, including climate change.
It is time for the government to invest in the real economy and focus on how to improve Philippine agriculture. It must promote the welfare and interest of farmers and our agriculture.
