Our farmers, our future

The bloody dispersal of protesting farmers in Kidapawan City would not have happened had the government acted earlier and faster. After all, the state of calamity in North Cotabato due to El Niño was already reported by media outlets as early as January. Yet the misery of the farmers and their families was set aside and forgotten, partly because of the fanfare of the election campaign. There were measures taken, yes, such as cloud-seeding and resource rationing, but the negotiations that led to this conflict showed these measures to be lacking.

What is worrisome is that the incident in Kidapawan may only be the first of a series of protests and calamities awaiting our country, and that may test our security and stability. After all, climate change caused the dry spell to be this harsh and harmful. And everywhere in the entire world, there are signs of accelerating ecological degradation: the hastened melting of the glaciers, the thinning of the poles, the extinction of keystone species such as bees and butterflies, the bleaching of reefs, the migration of fish, and more. The Philippines’ being an ecologically rich archipelago on the equator does not help. Our position gives us a front-seat view and experience on the harm that climate change may further bring.

Our farmers and fishers will be tested first. It makes sense. Erratic weather behavior will be extremely harsh for growing crops. Our dry spells will soon make irrigation impossible. Rainy spells may even be worse, as strong rains will inundate crops, wash out dried rice paddies, and make a swamp of a potential harvest. Our warming seas will soon be too much for marine life; anglers in the Atlantic are already witnessing large migrations of fish species that are normally found in warmer waters.

Given the threats, I would argue that investing in agriculture and fisheries as well as assistance to our farmers and fishers must be treated as an issue of national security. It has to be considered one of the top priorities of our next president. The declining contribution of agriculture to the national gross domestic product, due in part to a lack of administrative support, only adds to the numerous controversies involving the government, such as the pork barrel scam, the fertilizer fund scam, and even the still unresolved conflict between the Hacienda Luisita farmers and the Cojuangco-Aquino clan. We should do better than this.

People tend to frown on demonstrating farmers and fault them for their rowdiness and militancy. Yet if only the government had sufficiently addressed their needs in the first place, the farmers would have sustained their 30-percent contribution to the GDP in 1946, which has since dropped to 11 percent. Had the government provided for better opportunities and programs for the agricultural sector, farmers would not be resorting to protest demonstrations to call attention to their plight.

No wonder many aggrieved farmers end up sympathizing with militants, for it is the militants who treat them as human beings, not as lowly, cheap and dumb laborers. The militants are the only ones who approach them at their level, work with them, and talk with them. This gives the militants a leverage in persuasion. This is not to say that militants are always the backbone of farmers’ rallies. But militants fill the hole in the farmer’s heart with hope, a hole created by government neglect. Our government should be the one filling that hole, not just with hope, but also with a concrete opportunity to build a better tomorrow.

Farmers’ conditions will surely worsen when their livelihood is made irrelevant by certain technologies—vertical farming or farms in buildings, with facilities for a controlled environment, partially automated, managed by scientists, and funded by rich men, and the production of synthetic meat in factories, cultivated and improved by scientists, also funded by rich men. The ecological instability generated by climate change and our overpopulation are pushing the prospects of these technologies to commercial status. Imagine how many of our farms and farmers will be left out in the face of the efficiency and quality of these skyscraper produce. Imagine what it would spell for our economic policies if our food and resource security becomes highly dependent on corporate-owned farms and factories of scale.

We can give our farmers a fighting chance for tomorrow if we can improve their lives today and make the agricultural and fisheries sector a priority. We must arm them, not with anger and anxiety, but with knowledge, financial stability, and better participation in the economy. This can be done through better implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, scholarships for farmers’ children and agriculture students alike, friendlier loan programs, and better investments in resilient farming methods and agricultural and irrigation technologies, among others.

This will arm our nation as well for the challenges of climate change. The future of our farmers is our future; the security of their livelihood is the security of our nation.

Ace Alba, 23, works in an outsourcing company and dreams of working in a creative industry someday.