In a country where most politicians, when initiating projects, are just so concern about “dole-outs” conditions for purposes of winning future elections, it is refreshing that there are institutions that go for developments that are really appropriate and worthwhile. This is so as the World Bank launches the six-year Philippine Rural Development Project. Aimed “to facilitate easier access of farmers’ produce to the markets,” the Department of Agriculture will implement the project.
This undertaking shall come in the form of a $508.25-million loan and grant package to the Philippines for rural infrastructure aimed at improving the productivity of small farmers and fisherfolks. If properly implemented, this is supposed to raise “rural incomes and reduce poverty in the country” and, thus, “boost the country’s efforts to achieve growth that creates jobs, in line with the World Bank Group’s twin goals of eradicating extreme poverty and promoting shared prosperity.”
Motoo Konishi, WB’s country director, said “over 70 percent of total financing would be utilized for funding infrastructure projects.” These will include “farm-to-market roads, bridges, tire tracks, communal irrigation, potable water systems, post-harvest facilities, production facilities, fish landings, fish sanctuaries, storage facilities, trading posts, green houses, solar driers, and slope stabilization works.”
Though very encouraging, we have to take it with guarded optimism. First and foremost, these infrastructure projects are to be built in rural areas where LGU executives are greatly involved. Therefore, the projects’ integrity might be adulterated to some extent, as usual. Secondly, these projects are support facilities. Thus, these projects do not directly touch on the farmers’ direct requirements or their personal needs. It does not include farm implements, fertilizers and programs that are geared towards development of their entrepreneurial skills and financial literacy.
Remember, most of these struggling farmers are agrarian reform beneficiaries. As we all know, we’ve thrown our financial support to them for decades now. Yet, majority of them have so far failed to liberate themselves from bondage because of these inadequacies.
To recall, in late 2009, the Land Bank of the Philippines has earmarked PhP198 million for loans to agrarian reform beneficiaries. The project dubbed, Agri-enterprise Credit and Agri-finance Services (agriCASH), was reportedly “aimed to provide financial services to agri-based enterprises in Agrarian Reform Communities through selected countryside financial institutions, ARC cooperatives, LandBank-assisted cooperatives, and other lending conduits.” Through this project, LandBank intended to release up to PhP198 million in loans from 2009 to 2012. It also expected to “mobilize savings and generate share capital totaling PhP33 million for the three-year period. Despite all these and previous supports that have been running through decades, the agrarian reform sector remained impoverished.
Set aside money issues because there is an overdose of it. What we truly need now are programs or supports that are really appropriate. These can come in a combination of programs that directly involve the beneficiaries and infrastructure that are done simultaneously. With WB now initiating the relevant infrastructures, the government should now initiate projects that are geared towards personal developments of the farmers.
Thus, first and foremost, for these initiatives to be successful, this government should initiate programs that shall make this undertaking sustainable. Forget about “dole outs”, we don’t need that. Let us make our farmers bankable. We must all realize that banks lend money to bankable borrowers. It simply means that banks lend their depositors’ money to straightforward borrowers who have viable projects. Absolutely, they won’t indiscriminately lend money to those borrowers with unmitigated risks. That’s common sense, these aren’t banks’ money after all.
Secondly, to make the agrarian reform borrowers bankable, this government must equip these beneficiaries with sound entrepreneurial skills through the able support of the Department of Trade and Industry. Let us train them also on new farming technologies through the guidance of the technical experts from the Department of Agriculture. It might sound absurd but the government must even entertain the idea of hiring psychologists/psychiatrists to reorient these beneficiaries. They should be told to abandon the mentality of slaves and bury the attitude of mendicants. They are now free to till the land they own and be successful entrepreneurs. More importantly, as entrepreneurs, they should be informed that the land they till isn’t just for their own food subsistence, it shall also be its source for other needs like their kids’ education.
If undertaken wholeheartedly, we shall soon see our farmers growing in numbers in the countryside and thus help decongest our urban areas. Indeed, a real antidote to rural exodus.