Modernize agriculture, end the poverty of farmers

Filipino farmers should not be poor. They feed our nation, yet the social injustice prevails for generations. Our farmers produce our staple food, rice. They provide our fish, vegetables and other essential foods too, but they remain the country’s poorest workers.

This is not an agricultural problem. This is our nation’s failure. We cannot seriously claim that we are fighting poverty while at least 9.5 million agricultural workers are trapped in poverty. The solution must not be limited to short-term subsidies, distribution of farm inputs or another government program that terminates when the administration changes.

We need to transform Philippine agriculture from subsistence farming into a modern, technology-driven and profitable industry. Our farmers must become businessmen. For too long, the government policy has focused on helping our farmers produce. But producing more does not mean earning more.

A farmer can harvest a bumper crop and still lose money if farmgate prices collapse, middlemen dominate the market, storage is unavailable and logistics is expensive. The farmers must, therefore, be directly connected to the market.

Government must encourage and support cooperatives, agribusiness companies, supermarkets, food processors and exporters to enter into long-term purchasing arrangements with farmers. Instead of selling raw products immediately after harvest, farmers should increasingly participate in sorting, packaging, processing and marketing.

The difference between selling mangoes and selling processed mango products can mean the difference between poverty and prosperity.

Technology must reach the smallest farms. Modern agriculture cannot depend entirely on manual labor and traditional practices. We need precision agriculture, drones, satellite mapping, sensors, automated irrigation, better seeds, modern machinery and digital platforms that provide farmers with real-time information about weather, prices and demand.

Technology must not be limited to large plantations. The poorest farmers should have access to the same agricultural knowledge available to the richest farmers. Government can help through shared machinery centers, digital agricultural services, demonstration farms and affordable financing.

Land must become productive and land reform must not end with giving farmers farmlands. Small farms often struggle because they lack economies of scale. Farmers should be encouraged – not forced – to organize into cooperatives or production clusters that allow them to collectively purchase machinery, negotiate prices, access financing and sell to large buyers that offer reasonable prices. A thousand small farmers acting together can become a powerful agricultural enterprise.

Fix irrigation, roads and post-harvest losses. A farmer cannot compete globally if his harvest travels along poor roads, sits in the heat without refrigeration and reaches the market days later. Agricultural modernization therefore requires robust infrastructure. We need irrigation systems that allow multiple cropping, farm-to-market roads, warehouses, cold storage, drying facilities, processing centers and efficient logistics.

Every peso invested in agricultural infrastructure should be viewed as an investment in rural incomes.

Give farmers affordable capital. A farmer who cannot obtain affordable credit is forced into a vicious cycle. He borrows at high interest, buys expensive inputs, sells his harvest quickly to liquidate soonest and then starts the cycle again.

Government should drastically expand agricultural lending through digital lending, credit guarantees, crop insurance and stronger agricultural cooperatives. But financing must be linked to viable production and markets.

Credits should help farmers grow, not simply help them survive another season. Make agriculture attractive to the next generation. Perhaps the worst warning signal is that many young Filipinos do not see farming as a future or an attractive option. Why would they?

If farming means hard physical labor, uncertain income and little access to technology, young people will leave. We must make agriculture a modern profession. Imagine a young Filipino operating drones, managing a greenhouse, using artificial intelligence to determine planting schedules, running a cold storage facility or managing an agricultural export business. That is the farmer of the future.

Government must stop working in silos. Agricultural policies involves far more than the Department Agriculture. Trade, transportation, infrastructure, finance, education, technology, energy and local government all affect farm profitability.

The question should no longer be simply: how much did we spend on agriculture? It should be, how much did the farmer earn? This is the number that matters. Modernizing agriculture is not merely about increasing food production. It is about creating prosperous rural communities.

Agriculture can become an engine of inclusive growth rather than a sector permanently dependent on government assistance. The Filipino farmers don’t need pity. They need productivity, technology, capital, infrastructure and access to markets. We must build an agricultural system that allows them to prosper and be globally competitive. Modernize the farms. Empower our farmers.

*      *      *

Email: arielnepo.philstar.com