Hamlet: About PH Agriculture, The Group Of 5 Does Protest Too Much!

Honestly, have you or your group been paying attention to the pronouncements, policies, positions and performances of the Department of Agriculture (DA) since August 2019 when William Dar was appointed Secretary of Agriculture? Some groups do have wandering views!

In the Manila Times of 28 October 2021, Eireene Jairee Gomez says, “Groups Ask For Agricultural Reforms[1].” Ms Eireene lists them: Philippine Chamber of Agriculture & Food, Bayanihan sa Agrikultura, Federation of Free Farmers, Alyansya (sic) Agrikultura, and Coalition for Agriculture Modernization in the Philippines. I call them the Group of 5.

“Major industry groups,” begins Ms Eireene, “see the need for various government interventions to modernize and industrialize Philippine agriculture.” That tells me that the Group of 5 has not been paying enough attention to Mr Dar who even before he was appointed Secretary already had come out in public with his “New Thinking for Agriculture[2]” published 04 July 2019 in his Manila Times column, saying, among other things:

Here are the eight paradigms discussed in this four-part series: modernization must continue; industrialization of agriculture is key; promotion of exports is a necessity; consolidation of small- and medium-sized farms is urgent; roadmap development would be crucial; infrastructure development would be critical; higher budget and investment for Philippine agriculture are essential; and legislative support is needed.

So, about modernization & industrialization & so on & so forth, imitating Queen Gertrude in Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, I say to the Group of 5: “The laity does protest too much, methinks!”

Nonetheless, I love it that the Group of 5 says:

Agriculture can and should play a leading role in national economic recovery and, more importantly, in ensuring social and economic development for all. To achieve this, urgent policy reforms must be institutionalized and implemented with decisiveness.

If President Rodrigo Duterte would approve all those, under Servant Leader William Dar, Philippine agriculture will soon have its flowering nationwide!

In (their) position paper, the industry groups challenged the government to transform the country's agriculture sector into an engine of economic growth, a generator of jobs, a social and economic stabilizer in the countryside, and the cornerstone for the country's food security.

With superpowers granted by President Duterte and Congress, I am sure Mr Dar will prove more than equal to the task.

Agri-fisheries deserves adequate, sustained and effectively used funding. Its budget should at least be doubled; and its allocation optimized, to yield the greatest over-all benefit for the sector.

Funding is problematic, I’m sure; the DA has to beg and wait. Meanwhile, here is the latest Big News from the DA itself:

The Department of Agriculture (DA) is in the final stage of getting the approval to implement the Fisheries and Coastal Resiliency (FishCoRe) Project worth $200 million (P10 billion) funded by the World Bank[3].

The DA’s FishCoRe project is about to receive a gargantuan budget of P10,000,000,000 (9 digits)! The foreign World Bank has Big Bucks of Confidence with this Servant Leader compared to small change from the Filipino Group of 5!@517

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[1]https://www.manilatimes.net/2021/10/28/business/top-business/groups-ask-for-agricultural-reforms/1819997?fbclid=IwAR0GHEcs51tWmafURGS6ahMyldLz9xx082OImWFHgVlZZGKCOUEGSRymlPQ

[2]https://www.manilatimes.net/2019/07/04/business/agribusiness/the-new-thinking-for-agriculture-4/578808

[3]https://www.da.gov.ph/da-set-to-pursue-p10-b-world-bank-funded-blue-resources-project/?fbclid=IwAR2pqQ5LLPdc4SWBj5ek6YK2yYhJsOiHFLL2MXzFmqAdzjOeYvgNx-sWNII