(First of two parts) |
Everyone has a role to play and be part of the solution.
After all, job-creation and agricultural development cannot be achieved by government alone. The President has called on private-sector leaders to be her partners in rebuilding the nation. She has challenged businessmen who have what it takes, and who have the expertise and resources to help put the economy back on track.
We need modern-day Cincinnatuses who, like the 5th century B.C. farmer-warrior who defended Rome from certain destruction, are ready, willing, and able to help lead this country out of the economic quagmire.
The agriculture labor force survey for the last three years, compared with those from the past two decades, produces a graph line pointing straight down. Unemployment has been increasing at an appalling rate in a country so rich with manpower.
Worse, the agricultural sector, to which much hope has been pinned for the quick economic recovery of the country, seems to be suffering the biggest exodus of laborers. The Congressional Commission on Labor’s report, "Human Capital in the Emerging Economy," cites statistics showing that the share of agriculture in the total labor force has steadily declined in the last three decades – a paradox in an agri-dependent economy. The only steady increase in employment is in the services sector, but this may be more an indication of an exploding informal sector induced by an expanding labor force that is unable to find adequate employment in the agriculture and industry sectors.
What is even more alarming is that the employment in the agricultural sector has continued to plummet despite the various government interventions in the sector through the years. That means more and more farmers and their children are leaving the farmlands for the big city, where they hope to find higher-paying jobs and a better life. The sad part is that they’ll probably not get one there anyway and will all end up living in its squatter colonies.
Too many Filipinos, still, are jobless. As of October 2000, the number was 3.4 million.
Agriculture holds the key to addressing this gap because the largest number of our people are still tied to agriculture. It affects the livelihood of 12 million Filipinos or nearly 40% of our country’s total labor force. In good times or bad, agriculture forms the backbone of the Philippine economy, accounting for 21% of gross domestic product, while agri-related manufacturing and services contribute as much as 50%, thereby totaling 71% of GDP – the highest in Asia.
Creating jobs in the agricultural sector, where we can improve standards of living for the greatest number, goes a long way in our efforts to achieve sustainable peace and development. It is no coincidence that our rural areas manifest both the highest poverty incidence as well as the most persistent history of conflict in our country. The poor and disenfranchised are always easy targets for factions that sow discontentment and violence. We have seen the many faces of terror – including economic terrorism – and they endure and continue to divide our land.
But we have also seen the faces of perseverance and success. In the various commodity sectors, we have identified working models or winners; we have also highlighted provinces where we can focus our efforts for the production of these commodities, specifically those food items where we have a ready domestic market, such as rice, corn, and coffee. We use a global market orientation and benchmark the total system step by step, or "from seed to shelf," while keeping an eye on competitiveness in terms of cost, quality, reliability, customer service, and innovation.
Improved productivity can help address another problem: Agricultural imports eat up nearly US$ 500 Million from our economy every year. We need not spend this much on imports if we were to develop the capability of our own farmers to produce the food items we need. Agricultural production is inextricably linked with food security; and insufficiency, which leads to price increases, is felt the most by the poorest of Filipino households because over 66% of their expenses goes to food.
Further, our increasing importation underscores the ready market that we have for these agricultural products; clearly, we stand to gain should we be able to grow these products ourselves and cater to our domestic consumers effectively. Especially now that the global economy is in recession, our heavy dependence on foreign suppliers and markets makes us vulnerable to the uncertainties overseas. Our domestic agricultural sector must be self-sufficient. We can strengthen it by replicating the model winners.
Unfortunately, to many people today, there is something anachronistic about the phrase private-sector initiative. They find it unexciting or untrustworthy because it has been abused so many times before that it has been drained of its power.
But our country does have many modern-day Cincinnatuses. The challenge is to identify them, learn from them, and apply their success formulas throughout the agricultural sector. We are calling on all civic-spirited businessmen – those who are determined to do something, rather than just be something: Share the lessons you have learned in your own corners of the industry; show us how to actually move the economy forward. Saving this country requires more than talk.