COCAFM Moves to Step up Agricultural Modernization
Economic experts consider agriculture to be the lifeblood of Philippine economy. The sector employs almost half of the country’s labor force and contributes over 20% to the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Members of Congress are aware of this, thus, when the Philippines joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995, lawmakers pushed for measures to undertake comprehensive and critical assessment of the entire agricultural system, both public and private, including its policies, strategies and programs. The end in view is to provide economic and social adjustment measures that will cushion the impact of trade liberalization and globalization.
The Congress, during that time, believed that the competitiveness of Philippine agriculture in the world market should be enhanced to improve the quality of life of the majority of the people who are directly and indirectly dependent on agriculture for their livelihood.
Hence, in December iy95, Joint Resolution No. 1 was passed by the Senate and the House of Representatives which created the Congressional Commission on Agricultural Modernization (AGRICOM) which was chaired by Senator Edgardo J. Angara.
AGRICOM was tasked to review and assess the state of Philippine agriculture, particularly in the light of the ratification of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)- Uruguay Round Final Act, and the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, and recommend policy, as well as institutional and infrastructural measures to ensure the development and modernization of the sector, particularly of the small farmers and their families, and appropriate funds thereof.
After more than a year of conducting comprehensive studies and regional and subject consultations with experts in agriculture as well as stakeholders, the AGRICOM came out with a report and drafted and pushed for the enactment of a law that will modernize local agriculture and fishery industries.
“Unless Government deals with the structural weaknesses of our agriculture, it will not be able to feed future Filipino generations. (Already we are importing rice, corn and sugar.) Much less will agriculture be able to take advantage of export markets opening up as a result of our country’s membership in the World Trade Organization”, AGRICOM stated in its report.
“We need to modernize out, agriculture if we are to compete in an increasingly interdependent world. But our even greater need is to modernize the whole of the Philippine hinterland - as the only way of easing mass poverty,” the report also stated.
Enlightened by the AGRICOM’s report, Congress enacted on December 22, 1997 the Republic Act 8435 or the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act of 1997 (AFMA), the major accomplishment of AGRICOM, which was envisioned to spur productivity in agriculture and fishery sectors and make t4em more productive, profitable and globally competitive.
Under Section 114 of RA 8435, the law provided for the creation of the Congressional Oversight Committee on Agricultural and Fisheries Modernization (COCAFM), a powerful bicameral body that will oversee and monitor the strict implementation of AFMA.
COCAFM is composed of the chairs of the committee on agriculture and food of both the Senate and the House, and six members of the Senate and six members of the House designated by the Senate President and Speaker of the House, respectively.
Since its creation, the COCAFM had been chaired by four senators namely Senators Sergio Osmena III, Manuel Villar, Ramon Magsaysay, Jr. and Angara, the current chairman.
At present, the other members of the COCAFM are Rep. Abraham Kahlil Mitra, co-chair; Senators Rodolfo Biazon; Juan Ponce Enrile; Gregorio Honasan; Loren Legarda; Francis Pangilinan; Juan Miguel Zubiri; Representatives Rodolfo Antonino; Leonila Chavez; Erwin Chiongbian; Salvador Escudero III; Nur Jaafar and Manuel Zamora.
Providing administrative support is the COCAFM secretariat headed by its executive director Dr. Pacencia Milan, which performs all liaison, documentation, advocacy and communication activities for the committee.
Alarmed by the global food crisis, present members of the COCAFM has started to implement a work program in line with AFMA to help strengthen the agriculture and fishery sectors and effectively use it in poverty alleviation and economic development. “The global food crisis we now experience, sharply felt in the Philippines through the steep rice prices, is a tragic reminder to all of us - the government specially - that food and agriculture are fundamental for any developing country,” Angara says.
“We’ve got to step up modernizing agriculture in the country, not only to secure food for our people but to provide the most effective weapon against hunger and poverty,” the senator says.
“But food self sufficiency cannot be achieved given the- low level of investment in our agriculture sector. We’ve got to make our agriculture sector more productive to meet the increasing demand of our people especially since we have to feed loo million Filipinos by 2010,” Angara warns.
Mitra, for his part, said that the high cost of farm inputs such as fertilizers, seeds and irrigation is also forcing farmers out of business.
“We have a situation where farmers would rather do something else other than tilling their farms for food production because they cannot afford the high cost of farm inputs and postharvest expenses. Others take the risk only to be frustrated because nobody is buying their produce,” Mitra says.
“The implementation of AFMA should be revisited. The current non-compliance with AFMA funding has hampered the implementation of AFMA to its full potential. Designed to provide a comprehensive policy for the agriculture sector, the AFMA has been paralyzed by lack of financing. Government has failed to comply with the legislated funding for AFMA,” Angara laments.
“From 1999 to 2008, a total of Phpi33.76 billion has been programmed under the AFMA, but had the AFMA budgetary provision been followed en toto, this should have been PhpI73 billion. That means Php39•z4 billion has been appropriated for through AFMA legislation but not used to fund more irrigation, post-harvest facilities, and cutting edge research to agriculture,” Angara reported.
In July 2005, the COCAFM and the Center for Research and Communication Foundation signed a Memorandum of Agreement to conduct an AFMA review to assess the status of its implementation. The AFMA review every five years is mandated on Section 117 which provides for an independent panel of experts to review AFMA and make recommendations to the President and to both Houses of Congress.
After the review, the panel of experts presented key proposals and the major recommendation is to ensure funding. The incremental budget of Php15- 20 billion a year over the pre-AFMA should be implemented. This means a budget level today of Php3i to Php36 billion a year versus less than Php16 billion in 2006.
The experts also said that the percentage allocation by component as mandated by AFMA must be followed at the very least.
Another proposal is for the Department of Agriculture to formulate and implement a medium and long term comprehensive Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Plan in consultation with various stakeholders including all concerned agencies and considering regional priorities.
The DA should ensure the implementation of irrigation and the Strategic Agriculture and Fisheries Development Zones (SAFDZs), the experts recommended.
The market prospects, they said, should determine the balance between food and non-food crops (grains and tree crops) and land-based and water (sea) based farming.
The budget releases will have multiyear components in order not to jeopardize long-gestating projects such as Research and Development (R&D), and tree crops. Using one percent of agriculture and fisheries gross value added as benchmark, the current budget for R&D should be in the order of Php 8.5 billion in 2008. The 10% AFMA allocation for R&D appears inadequate using the bench mark.
Angara said that while modest efforts towards funding more R&D projects are beginning to sprout, a lot more should be done to strengthen agriculture in the country. More support for farmers in -terms of access to market, credit, training and extension services, and farming facilities should be provided..
“Hopefully, with existing efforts towards strengthening and modernizing agriculture, we can soon finally utilize agriculture as an effective tool in fighting poverty and promoting economic growth,” Angara added.
