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Challenges, Imperatives, and A Call For Partnership
The Honorable Leonardo Q. Montemayor
Secretary, Department of Agriculture
June 26, 2001
Greetings -
 I
am glad to be with you today because I consider it critical to dialogue
with the business community. From our discussions and based on our
common concerns for development, let us form partnerships for the
development of the agricultural sector.
Solidarity is so critical at this time. The challenges
we all face in agriculture sector can only be overcome if and when
we all work as one, united by a common vision of equitable development.
At EDSA 1 and 2, we joined hands to pursue a common
cause. With that struggle well in hand, our Government, led by President
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, has now buckled down to the long-term,
difficult task of political and economic recovery and growth.
Many of you have already heard the President enunciate
her administration's over-riding goal: Agricultural and Fisheries
Modernization with Equity. We are expanding that to three themes:
Food Security, Improved Incomes, and Empowerment. Today, allow me
to share with you more specifics of that vision.
There are three basic concerns which I would like
to discuss with you today. First, are the extreme challenges we
face in agriculture. Second, are the imperatives that we must focus
on. And third, are the partnerships that we must build together
in order that the agriculture
and rural sector shall recover and develop in a sustainable manner.
The Challenges
Let us not kid ourselves: by any measure, we face
daunting, almost overwhelming, problems in the sector: Growth in
farm productivity over the past decade has been stagnant and even
declining. Referring to 1990 as the base year, over-all productivity
has grown at barely over 1% per year. In contrast, the agricultural
sectors of Thailand and Vietnam have zoomed upward in growth, by
at least 6- 8% per year. Our population has grown faster than agricultural
production, while our agricultural land has declined due to increasing
urbanization.
The twin pressures of rapid population growth and
stagnant productivity, have forced us to import larger amounts of
rice. Over the past decade, our rice imports have averaged about
15% of total consumption per year. And despite the added supplies
arising from imports, the rice prices faced by Filipino households
are about two times Vietnamese households.
Partly because of high food prices, crushing poverty
remains -particularly in the countryside and in our urban slums.
Eighty percent of our people spend at least half of their budgets
on food. Therefore any increases in food prices are tantamount to
cuts in wages, exacerbating labor unrest.
Three aspects of the challenges just cited above should
be obvious:
First, the problems of the agricultural sector have
resulted from long-running neglect, ever since the early 1980s before
the fall of the Marcos administration. Indeed, while efforts to
address the problems were launched by the post-EDSA 1 administrations
since 1986, their implementation has fallen far behind stated objectives.
The second feature of the challenges we face in agriculture
is that there are neither magic solutions nor quick fixes. Most
of these problems are long-term in nature. The actions required
also need an extended period to implement. For example, experience
tells us that the average
gestation period of a national irrigation project from resource
allocation to water flow is seven years!
And third, government alone cannot be relied upon
to face the enormous task of agriculture sector recovery and growth.
As we all are painfully aware, our government's resources
and management skills are very limited. Not only that, we also know
that even where budgets are available, significant savings can be
gained through better management and reduction of waste. We have
to be selective and focused. We have seen too many efforts launched,
only to be prematurely aborted due to lack of resources and management
skill.
Imperatives
To address these challenges, the imperatives are all
too clear. While long-term solutions are called for, our actions
must not only lay the fundamentals for sustained growth but must
also respond to short-term demands arising from current poverty
and need.
All these are easier said than done, and demands a
most difficult balancing act, indeed!
So where do we start?
First- on the long-term concerns:
We must start with the law, the codified mandate by
which we pursue our vision and goals -and we should all take it
to heart. I cannot state it strongly enough -we must implement R.A.
8435 - the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Law - in full.
I should stress that the AFMA is not only about funding.
The AFMA also establishes mechanisms and strategies for the more
efficient use of available funds. The law further emphasizes the
primacy of private enterprise in agricultural modernization and
growth.
For example, the AFMA mandates that public investments
in support of productive enterprise should be concentrated in the
SAFDZs -the Strategic Agriculture and Fisheries Development Zones.
Therefore, let us view the SAFDZs as profit centers for productive
investment.
Another example is the identification of "Centers
of Excellence" among State Universities and Colleges that will
be the focus of support for world-class agricultural education and
research.
Still another efficiency-boosting strategy enshrined
in the AFMA is the empowerment of civil society and Local Government
Units to provide area-specific extension services, instead of continued
reliance on the weakened national extension structure.
The AFMA sets our priorities in public investment
-principally communal irrigation, operated and sustained through
collaboration between irrigators' associations and LGUs (local government
units). Thus, the National Irrigation Administration will, over
time, specialize in giving technical and engineering support to
LGUs and IAs (independent agencies). In turn, the LGUs and IAs will
take on larger roles in the construction, operation and maintenance
of communal irrigation systems.
The AFMA places production technology at the heart
of our drive toward revitalized agricultural and rural growth. Indeed,
we must capture all the benefits from the latest and more productive
advances in agricultural technology. Hence, the AFMA requires maximized
investment budgets in research and development, to the tune of at
least 1% of agricultural gross value added.
In sum, the AFMA sets the framework by which we shall
achieve sustainable food security and a modernized agriculture:
revitalized productivity for a more abundant food supply, coupled
with more efficient deployment of resources and the building of
genuine partnerships between government and the private sector.
And how shall we cope with short-term pressures and
urgencies?
Let us first tackle household food insecurity stemming
from the large gap between domestic and imported food prices. In
this regard, we have initiated the Targeted Rice Distribution Program
(TRDP).
The National Food Authority (NFA), Department of Social
Welfare and Development (DSWD), National Anti-Poverty Council (NAPC)
and selected LGUs and NGOs jointly implement the TRDP.
Under the program, the generalized subsidies being
provided by the NFA are now aimed at specified communities of the
poorest of the poor. The TRDP is a win-win, efficiency-enhancing
program. We are reducing those subsidies that have heretofore been
going to the better-off populations, in favor of the poorest communities.
The President has ordered the expansion of the TRDP,
as a mechanism that transforms a competitive challenge into an advantage.
Another area where short -term pressures need to be
met is in the enhanced ability of the agricultural bureaucracy to
react to problems, demands and opportunities. I have observed the
Department of Agriculture and its attached agencies through three
terms in Congress. Now as a civil servant, I am truly amazed at
how centralized the bureaucracy is, despite the enactment of the
Local Government Code about a decade ago.
I believe that the quickest way to make the agricultural
bureaucracy much more responsive and flexible is first, through
devolution, and second, by judicious regulation.
I intend to place substantial authority and
resources in the hands of the DA's Regional Executive Directors
(REDs). The REDs will have greater authority to work in partnership
with the Governors and Congressmen in their respective areas. Local
collaboration will also be encouraged with private business, NGOs
(non-government organizations) and POs (people's organizations).
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