The unfortunate predicament of Filipino farmers incurring financial loss instead of generating huge profits from the abundant harvest is actually a perennial and recurrent problem that the Department of Agriculture (DA) has failed to resolve.
The plight of the tomato farmers in Bukidnon dumping their products rather than selling them to traders for prices lower than the cost of production was reported last July. Last Friday, Sept. 9, the same situation happened to the garlic farmers in Batanes and cabbage growers in Benguet.
Notwithstanding the statement of Senior Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban who quickly absolved the DA while blaming the farmers, it is evidently clear that the recurrent problem actually reflects one of the most glaring failures of the DA.
Undersecretary Kristine Evangelista must be held accountable in as much as she has served as the head of the Agricultural Marketing Assistance Services (Amas) and Kadiwa project director for the past six years.
Amas is essentially mandated to activate a market matching system wherein various agricultural products of farmers from different parts of the country end up in suitable markets with competitive prices. Kadiwa, on the other hand, was supposed to facilitate wholesale transactions, especially for agricultural products with a huge production surplus. In this context, over-supply would have no adverse effect and wastage should have been prevented.
With huge budget allocations, the farmers and fisherfolks should have been accorded adequate marketing and logistical support through the Amas and Kadiwa. Apparently, both offices only succeeded as instruments to justify fund utilization. But in terms of measurable accomplishment, both offices can only be described as TOTAL FAILURES.
Joel Rullan,
joelrullan9888@gmail.com