Some aspects of the current campaign to elect 12 senators of the incoming 20th Congress are astonishing. But no aspect can be more astonishing than the almost total failure of the nearly 65 senatorial candidates to take up the issue of Philippine agriculture in their campaigns. With the exception of a handful of the candidates – former Presidential adviser on agriculture Kiko Pangilinan and Bam Aquino are two of them – the candidates in the 2025 Senatorial election have been thinking this country’s agriculture like a non-issue.
This is not to say that the senatorial candidates have been discussing unimportant issues in their encounters, at rallies and in various’ fora, with the electorate. The cost of living, minimum wages, unemployment and underemployment, health care costs, education poor public facilities and corruption that are very important issues. The candidates to engage with the Filipino people on these are other issues that will impact their personal living and shape their country’s direction. But leave the agriculture issue almost culturally out of the electoral discourse? That too bad . And it’s very sad.
It’s too bad because agriculture is about eating and feeding and food prices. We Filipinos, all 120 million of us, have to be fed, whether with domestically produced food or with imported food. Notwithstanding the billions of pesos that have been made available by the government to agriculture, including the 10 billion generated annually by the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL) and the palay-buying fund of the National Food Authority (NFA), the agricultural policymakers appear to have given up on the idea of national rice and self-sufficiency. Supply deficits naturally have been made up by imports. Almost by definition, imports have a dampening effect on domestic production of a commodity.
Imports of rice into the Philippines is the story of a string of government agencies mandated to undertake the activity of importing rice. First there was the National Rice and Corn Corporation (NARIC). NARIC was followed, in succession, by the Rice and Corn Authority (RCA) National Grain Authority (NGA) and, until its mandate was diminished by the RTL, rice importation was done on a government – to – government basis.
Rice imports involve three elements, of which two are monetary in nature: the effect on the consumer price index (CPI), the outflow of foreign exchange to foreigners and the possibility of corruption in the pricing of the imports.
I spoke above of sadness with regard to the Senatorial candidates’ failure or unwillingness to discuss Philippine agriculture with their campaign audience’s. The sadness stems from the fact that this country possesses almost all of the principal components of a successful agricultural development program. It has an abundance of fertile land, sufficient financing (the national budget , the RTL revenues and the Land Bank of the Philippines), a solid technological base (UP Los Baños, the International Rice Research Institute and the Philippine Rice Research Institute) and a corps of experienced and hardened farmers.
It’s saddening to contemplate that despite these endowments this country has for some time been the world’s No. 1 rice importer. And who knows? In time the Philippines might also become the world’s No. 1 importer of onions, garlic, etc.
Now, when they are out campaigning for their votes, is the time for the senatorial candidates to give the Filipino people an idea of what they can contribute to the effort to make agriculture the robust, progressive sector of the Philippines economy that it once was and can be once more.
A concluding thought. The fact that almost all of the senatorial candidates don’t discuss agriculture on the campaign trail can mean one of two things: they don’t know or they don’t care. Take your pick.
(llagasjessa@yahoo.com)