Is it doomsday for our Agri department?

Why did President Aquino appoint former Senator Francis Pangilinan as his presidential assistant on food security and agricultural modernization? Did he just create a new cabinet position for a job that his present Secretary of Agriculture cannot seem to do?

This reminds me of former Senator Ping Lacson’s (aka “Rehab Czar”) appointment as the presidential assistant for rehabilitation and recovery. Why did P-Noy need to create this new position when the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council already exist?

The message we get with this new appointment of Pangilinan is that the President is not happy with the current Agriculture Secretary “Procy” Alcala. If Malacañang tries to sugarcoat this issue or downplay it by saying that the department is too big or has too many problems then something is wrong. Why keep the present Secretary of Agriculture then? Why not ask him to resign and just replace him with Francis Pangilinan?

Clearly, the President removed four major agencies which are presently under public scrutiny (allegedly having way too many corruption cases) from the Department of Agriculture namely: the National Food Authority, National Irrigation Administration, Philippine Coconut Authority and the Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority and gave them to Pangilinan.

The question now is, what is left for Secretary Alcala to do? He should have already cleaned up the DA on his first year of service. What did he do? Why has the DA gotten worse? And why can’t P-Noy just let him go? Why is he sucking his way in and not out of office? How can Pangilinan do his job in fighting corruption in the DA when one of the alleged suspects (who should be under investigation) is still the point person of the President? Shouldn’t the President sanitize the whole department first? Abangan.

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One of the four agencies that was given to Pangilinan is the Philippine Coconut Authority (or PCA) which we very well know has major internal problems. In fact, they cannot even save the dying coconut trees. Why has it taken them too long to arrest the problem?

The Philippines is a top producer of coconut products (copra, copra meal, coconut oil, coco chemicals, coco shell charcoal, desiccated coconut, etc.) worldwide. It plays a major role in our national economy. And now this industry is facing uncertainties. There is a serious threat to its very existence. It also saddens me to know that the Philippines is now importing coco juice from a leading packaged coco water company in the US. I hope this will pose a challenge to both government and the private sector to give importance to our miracle tree.

I don’t understand why the PCA cannot solve the problem of the dying coconuts? Why didn’t the DA and the PCA panic? Why did they allow the pest (coconut scale insects) to spread all over Calabarzon?

Reports say that over the last two years, Philippine coconut tree inventory fell from 340,000,000 to under 290,000,000 due to super typhoon Yolanda and a virulent Calabarzon infestation which is also affecting other trees, plants and crops and is now spreading to neighboring regions. What is even more disheartening is that over 30% of remaining trees are senile, underproductive and need to be replanted. These figures show that all is not well in the agricultural side of the Philippine coconut agro-industry.

Last month, the DA and PCA announced that Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, and Quezon coconuts were to be quarantined due to the scale insect infestation. I don’t know if that was actually implemented. But looking at the “buko” arrivals in Manila, it seems that no one implemented the said quarantine.

About a year ago, I wrote about a story involving the PCA and Kinetics BT Global, a foreign company who believes to have a solution to the infestation problem. PCA then was desperate for a solution (but they did not give this company a chance) to the infestation problem since their own Scale Infestation Control Action Team (SICAT) did not have a solution despite having spent P20,000,000.

So, the infestation continued and even got worse. Today, some 2,000,000 trees in Calabarzon have died. In and around Star Tollway and even in UPLB, it appears there are very few coconuts still alive. The colors of the trees are mostly yellow and brown, with very little green. Some say the speed of the spread of the disease is 15 km. per month in all directions. That is really scary, considering the hot and dry summer we are experiencing right now.

What is being done about the infestation? The state of UPLB’s coconut trees does not speak well of their supposed expertise. And the PCA and DA jokers probably have even less competence, albeit more arrogance and lack of concern.

There have been articles written about the problem. One of these is Cito Beltran’s piece that cited his personal experience. There was also a protest run by Fr. Robert Reyes that was just met with stoic silence by DA Undersecretary de Luna and PCA Deputy Administrator Rosales.

What people don’t seem to understand is that this has gone way past a simple insect infestation. Entomologists obviously know little about how to stop this, as evidenced by the fact that the saboteur of last year’s Alaminos trial has filed for early retirement before his competence (or lack of it) is actually exposed including that of his bosses.

  The days are passing quickly still nothing is done about this problem. If we ignore this or take our sweet time, the infestation will get worse. The truth is that the disease has gone down to the soil. That is why even lanzones, banana, pineapples, mangosteen and other fruits and crops are affected. So those who think this is just a matter of spraying the trees and releasing predators to eat the smaller insects must be out of their minds. Susmariosep!

According to the PCA, coconuts occupy 25% of the country’s arable land and impact the livelihoods of 25,000,000 Filipinos. But a fixation with copra production has prevented manufacturing activity other than that related to copra to be developed by PCA, despite the research and development resources which it can access. A countryside entrepreneurship advocacy, BalikProbinsiya Inc., proposes that more finished products be developed using various coconut raw materials, even as the Philippine Coconut Society (PCS) has proposed that “frescohan” replace “coprahan” to allow coconut farmers and workers to earn more. Unfortunately, PCA has not taken advantage of this aspect. It is not only incompetent but also uncaring for the welfare of the farmers and trees under its care.

I understand many solutions have been tried. Cito Beltran said he had spent about P400/tree and still could not save his trees. PCA doggedly insists that P90/tree is enough. But they cannot show any workable solution. Sanamagan!

Is the former Senator ready to do the job? Will he be able to save the coconuts? Let’s wait and see!