It’s been four years since a new administration took over and President Marcos – in emphasizing the importance he attached to farm production – served concurrently as agriculture secretary.
In that first year, the President stressed the measures needed to boost agricultural production and raise farmers’ incomes. Among the measures mentioned were drastic reductions in the number of middlemen from farm to market as well as an expansion in cold chain facilities.
Both measures have yet to be realized. The biggest crises to hit the Marcos administration in its first year were related to agriculture: shortages in chicken and potatoes; price surges in eggs, sugar and rice; an eye-watering spike in onion prices amid a supply shortage during the holiday season.
This time, with a new agriculture chief, the government is facing a different onion problem: the possibility of a crash in farm gate prices as the harvest season peaks.
The Department of Agriculture has ordered the state-run Food Terminal Inc. to begin buying onions “to prevent a farm gate price collapse.”
Such price falls have been depressingly common, involving other crops such as tomatoes and carrots. Sometimes farmers just give away their crops, or else leave the produce to rot by the roadside because transporting them to the market is not worth the cost.
With so many people hungry across the country, such waste of food almost seems criminal. But most farmers themselves are impoverished. If they lack proper storage facilities for their harvest, they are left with no choice but to dispose of the crops when there’s a supply glut, prices plummet.
This food waste can be avoided and supply and prices of agricultural commodities can be stabilized if cold chain facilities become widely available, as committed by the administration.
Expanding the cold chain shouldn’t prove as complicated as delivering on the campaign promise of rice at P20 a kilo in regular rather than heavily subsidized retail pricing.
The government can also assist farmers in finding regular wholesale buyers for their crops during harvest season. Tomatoes or bananas, for example, can be processed into ketchup, while fruits can be canned, dried, or processed into juices and similar items.
Even cut flower production can be boosted sufficiently for export if there are proper storage facilities for small producers. The world’s top orchid producers, for example, are in Southeast Asia: Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and even tiny Singapore. Why can’t the Philippines catch up?
There are other factors behind better agricultural production in neighboring countries, but cold chain facilities are among them. These were promised four years ago. It’s time to make good on the promise.