Recently I had occasion to speak about the government winning only half of a battle that it had launched. That was when I wrote about the issuance of the Code of Corporate Governance by the government’s securities industry watchdog, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). I said that the completion and issuance of the Code was only half of the battle against corporate misgovernance; the other half was, I said, the effective enforcement of the Code’s structures and prohibitions.
Today, I find myself having, once more, to write about a government-initiated battle that has been only half-won. This time the object of my both-halves-of-a-battle-must-be-won thinking is efficient use of this country’s agricultural land, almost all of which is devoted to the growing of five crops, namely, coconuts, rice, corn, sugarcane and tobacco.
The generally low productivity of this country’s agricultural sector has long been attributed by agronomists and agriculture experts mainly to the mismatch between soil and crop: the wrong crop being grown on the right soil. Thus, some farmers persist in planting sugarcane in areas that agronomically unsuitable and some farmers continue to grow coconuts in areas that would be more profit-generating if planted to other crops.
To correct this situation – to bring about the most efficient use of the nation’s millions of hectares of arable land – the Department of Agriculture recently launched NACCAG (the National Color-Coded Agricultural Guide map) under its Adaptation and Mitigation Initiative in Agriculture Program.
Secretary of Agriculture Manuel Pinol is proud of NACCAG, and justifiably so. All the latest relevant scientific data – on soil analysis, climate impact, weather prediction and geographical hazards –have been digitalized and incorporated under a website (www.farmersguidemap.gov.ph), the Secretary said. Data from the website will be downloaded in every community. “By typing the name of his town, province and region, a farmer will be able to determine what crops can be ideally grown in his area, down to the barangay level.” Manuel Pinol proudly explained.
NACCAG is way, way overdue. It should have been produced and disseminated many decades ago. Had that been the case, agriculture would have been one of the drivers of this country’s economic development and Philippine agriculture would now be a robust and high-growth sector instead of the inefficient and vulnerable GDP (gross domestic product) component that it gradually became. But, paraphrasing a well-known saying, better a late NACCAG than none at all.
Like the completion and issuance of the Code of Corporate Governance, the production of the dissemination of NACCAG represents the winning of only half a battle. The other half of the battle is ensuring that this country’s farmer obtain the inputs necessary for crop production: water, fertilizers, pesticides, credit and technical assistance. What would be the point of giving them color-coded guidance as to the right crops to grow if the needed inputs are unavailable to them? Secretary Pinol knows what I am driving at; all that I have to do is to mention the fertilizer scam o the Arroyo Presidency, when more than P700 million intended for fertilizer and other farm inputs was skimmed off by a conspiracy involving legislators, corrupt DBM (Department of Budget and Management) personnel and private-sector scam artists. That scam can recur if DBM personnel are complicit.
Congratulations, Secretary Manny. Your department has produced what Philippine agriculture has long needed. But color-coded agriculture is worth little if the Filipino farmer is unable to sustain the growing of his scientifically indicated crop.
E-mail: rudyromero777@yahoo.com