Usec blaming farmers for bureaucrats’ failures

Agriculture Senior Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban unfairly blames farmers for inability to sell their produce. Farmers deserve care, not castigation. They’re at the mercy of natural and man-made threats.

Typhoons disrupt enough. Floods ruin farms, as legislators pocket multibillion-peso congressional pork barrels from ghost river dredging. Department of Agriculture bureaucrats not only delay cash subsidies, they also leave planters, fishers and poultry-livestock raisers to fend for themselves in knowhow and tech. They abet cartel over-imports and smuggling, then take bribes from seedling, pesticide and machinery procurements.

Panganiban must know that. He was in DA and related offices 40 years, 1961-2001, before resurrecting 21 years later this month at age 83.

“They plant crops but don’t think about the market for their harvests,” Panganiban told OneNews.PH/STAR Wednesday. But did mindless planting really lead to oversupply and spoilage of garlic in Batanes and cabbage in Benguet?

No. Gov. Marilou Cayco laments that 25 tons of un-transported garlic, out of a 60-ton harvest in Itbayat island, resulted from unexpected factors. Traders in Cagayan mainland suddenly cut back on domestic buying when cheap Chinese garlic flooded Luzon.

Neglected by DA in alternative cropping, Batanes folk plant year-round typhoon-resistant root crops like garlic and turmeric. They expected brisk sales, as DA announced garlic shortage this second half of 2022. Figures were presented at a House hearing in August: 73,146-ton demand versus 37,000-ton supply. Then the spice cartel struck again, dumping Chinese garlic to retail at P100 per kilo. Its aim was to force Itbayat farmers to sell to them at rates less than production cost.

Same with Benguet cabbage. A viral video showed Jan Slay Magno of Itogon, beside Baguio City, chopping his family’s harvest for fertilizer. Better to use it as soil fattener, he said, because commercial brands were too costly and cabbage was selling at P5 per kilo, one-third the capital.

Interviewed on Ted Failon’s radio-tv show Wednesday, farmer-leader Romeo Wagayan of far-off Buguias confirmed the malady. Egged on by traders with some fertilizer donations, they planted cabbage, only to be duped at harvest time. Victimized too often, he discourages his three sons from farming.

DA needs new blood. Only then can it modernize soil and crop research, planting techniques and facilities, and farmer-market linkages. It can be done; I’ve seen it done in the early 1990s by young fieldmen of USAID’s Agribusiness System Assistance Program. Chancing upon La Union farmers hawking fresh tomatoes at Dagupan City plaza ridiculously cheap at P15 per bulging sack, I quickly informed my brother-in-law, ASAP-North Luzon officer. The country was only then beginning to use home computers and ordinary cell phones. He sought a few minutes for research and calls. Then he phoned back to tell the farmers in broken Ilocano to reload their wares on to the rented trucks and proceed to Urdaneta 30 kms away where they can fetch at least P50. Sadness turned into smiles. USAID replicated such feat countless times through Growth with Equity in Mindanao.

Young idealistic political appointees can lick corruption. Longtime bureaucrats won’t do it; they’re either part of the rackets or scared to fight. Are new DA officials up to it?

For decades now regulators have been allowing unnecessary imports of vegetables, fruits, corn, sugar, poultry, pork and seafoods – at low or no duties. Expired permits are recycled – technical smuggling – in cahoots with crooked Customs men. They’ve divided the territory. In piers only Customs monitors refrigerated cargo containers; off-port only DA looks into cold storages. Sleaze rages on, Congress hearings last June revealed.

La Trinidad farmer-leader Agot Balanoy spent the whole of last year exposing smuggling of Chinese carrots, chayote, broccoli, squash and gourd. Despite no bail and life terms, economic saboteurs remain scot free.

Blamed for DA’s failures, farmers will doubt Panganiban’s capability to end corruption and ineptitude. Re-entering DA with him is a former assistant secretary linked to hundred-million-peso pork barrel in 2013. At risk are DA and eight agencies’ funds, remnants of this year’s P178 billion, refreshed next year with P254 billion. Imperiled too is President Bongbong Marcos’ plan to stave off hunger and redeem the family name.

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