Agriculture Secretary William Dar, along with other global, regional and local leaders, experts and practitioners, called for the proactive involvement of private and public sectors in addressing current challenges in poverty, food insecurity, and rural prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region.
In his discourse during the Rural Development and Food Security Forum organized by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) on October 28, 2019, Dar discussed how crisis can be turned into opportunities.
“We have run the crisis in our rice sector as an opportunity to further develop and modernize our agricultural economy. A rice industrialization roadmap will serve as a blueprint for the modernization of the rice industry and promote consolidation of production, and enable efficient use of farm technologies and machineries,” said Dar.
He also cited the eight paradigms institutionalized by the Department of Agriculture under his “New Thinking for Agriculture” approach to address various farming challenges and crisis such as climate change and fragmentation of farmlands.
He stressed that fragmentation has resulted in the rise of smallholder farmers, who are fast aging because of the uninviting appeal of farming on the youth.
Dar said the recent policy change in the rice economy led to “farming crisis” in rice sector. He said there is an urgency to elevate the efficiency of farmers’ in able to compete with imported rice.
“With the inadequate knowledge of smallholder farmers in applying modern farm technologies, there has been a difficulty in increasing productivity,” Dar said.
He said the crisis in rice sector provides an opportunity to further develop and modernize agricultural economy.
“To promote farm mechanization, increase the use of better seeds, provide low interest production credit, and offer training programs to palay farmers — a P10 billion-worth Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fun (RCEF) was established,” Dar said.
The Secretary added that a Crop Diversification program should be developed to help farmers to become more profitable. He said the program that other agricultural crops will be given with much-needed support.
“We are targeting an annual income of Php 200,000 for farmer families or US $4,000 every year. We want crop diversification. This is part of RCEF, and we will expand that. We see a growth of 2% for the sector within 1 year of my start as Secretary,” Dar said.
He also said the department will adopt the Big Brother-Small Brother model. He said private sector has an integral role in the development of Philippine agriculture.
“We will be involved training, enhance partnerships, and replicated the model to other province,” Dar said.
Meanwhile, Chief of Rural Development and Food Security of Asian Development Bank Akmal Siddiq said the government should provide smart policies and attract private investment into farming. He said regulatory bodies should make youth find agriculture desirable.
ADB committed to support development member countries in supplying sufficient, nutritious, safe, and affordable food. ADB said they will proactively assist members to increase agricultural productivity and profitability, enhance food safety, and improve climate resilience and sustainability. ### (Kristel Merle, DA-AFID)
