Agriculture is the Future

"Agriculture is the future", Sen. Chiz Escudero said over the weekend; that government should make agriculture one of its priorities to lessen the country’s dependence on imports.

Philippine agricultural imports are continuously rising by about 12 percent annually since 2004 when it reached nearly $4 billion.

In the first half of 2008, the total agricultural import expenditures reached more than $3 billion, or 12 percent of total import expenditures. Among the biggest agricultural imports are milk and dairy products, and wheat that account for nearly 25 percent of it.

"As a tropical nation, we must focus on agriculture. But we are not doing anything to improve it. For example, while we have the capability to make the dairy industry better, government has not provided assistance and incentives for it," he said at a gathering of farmers in Nueva Ecija and Pampanga.

The Philippines imports about 85 percent of its dairy needs, with imports of milk and dairy products reaching $302 million during the first half of 2007 while domestic milk production was worth just $7.9 million.

Agricultural production accounted for about one fifth of the Philippine economic output of $168.6 billion in 2008.

Of the country’s land area of 30 million hectares, about 47 percent is agricultural. Agriculture currently employs about 38 percent of total labor
force of 36 million.

"I have authored a bill to amend the National Dairy Authority (NDA) charter. For the longest time, the budget of the NDA, which is the government agency tasked to oversee the development of the Philippine dairy industry, has not been sufficient," Escudero lamented, noting that the 2009 budget for it is only P102 million (a year).

(Senate Bill) "SB 2670 seeks to amend the National Dairy Act of 1995 (RA 7884) to step up development of the domestic dairy industry, regulate the entry of milk products more tightly, increase our local dairy market share, and strengthen the dairy industry so that we won’t rely too much on imported milk for our needs," he said.

Untapped Hog Industry’s Export

Sen. Chiz Escudero said "hog raisers must try to expand their market through exports so that the country can become a major player in the industry."

"The value of Philippine pork exports reached nearly P100 billion in 2006 with production reaching at least 1.7 million metric tons. Main export markets are Japan and the US," Escudero pointed out.

In 2007, the Philippines ranked among the top 15 pork producers in the world with a production of 1.7 million tons.

However, exports were curtailed with the emergence of Foot-and-Mouth disease (FMD) and the Ebola Reston virus (ERV) last year.

"Once we are able to resolve these problems, the domestic hog could come up with pork products for export," he stressed at the 18th National Federation of Hog Farmers convention in Clark, Pampanga, FMD is an infectious disease affecting mainly hoofed animals like pigs, cattle, goats and sheep. It was initially reported in October 2008 in two farms in Pangasinan and Bulacan. This prompted the culling of 6,500 pigs. Six farm workers were found to have suffered a mild case of flu but have recovered.

ERV is a highly virulent strain that affects the respiratory system of pigs. In November 2008, a number of hogs in four farms in Luzon were tested positive for the virus. But no documented case of the virus being transmitted from hogs to human was recorded.

"Rather than signing agreements that only open up our markets to products of questionable origin, government should be offering assistance to domestic hog producers," Escudero recommended.

More than half of the estimated total swine population of 13.6 million comes from backyard and commercial farms in Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Western Visayas, Central Visayas and Eastern Visayas. /MP