JOHN Slay Magno, a son of a vegetable farmer in Benguet province, was on the verge of tears as he showed a video of himself and his little brothers while chopping unharvested heads of cabbage to pieces on the ground. He said these vegetables will just be left to rot in the soil, to be used as fertilizer in the next cropping season.
The reason for such misery, Magno said, is the very low price of cabbage at P5 per kilo in their area, compared to P60 per kilo in Metro Manila markets. He said there are no buyers in Benguet, and to haul these vegetables to the nearest bulk market (presumably Baguio City or any nearer urban area) would cost them so much and inflate their loss even more.
Magno is so sad because his parents sacrificed much and invested money for fertilizer and other farm needs, only to incur a big loss in the end. The video was made and shown online last August.
‘It is pathetic that our vegetable farmers are reeling from production and marketing woes while farmers abroad are benefiting from the unhampered smuggling of agricultural products.’
In another part of the country, the province of Batanes which is also in the north, a similar problem is being tackled by the local government. This island province is known for its high-quality garlic and its hardy farmers have been producing the commodity for decades.
Recently, Batanes Gov. Marilou Cayco appealed to buyers in Metro Manila to purchase their 25 tons of surplus garlic which they sell in Batanes for P100 per kilo. The governor said she received reports that garlic in Metro Manila is priced at P400 a kilo. Actually, the provincial government has bought half of this garlic harvest of 60 metric tons to help the farmers of Itbayat island, but they still have to dispose of the 25 tons.
It is pathetic that our vegetable farmers are reeling from production and marketing woes while farmers abroad are benefiting from the unhampered smuggling of agricultural products. Even with the passage of a law specifically against smuggling of agricultural products — the one authored by Sen. JV Ejercito — no one has been punished for this offense, and the Department of Agriculture, the Bureau of Customs and other responsible agencies remain clueless or are looking the other way in exchange for some personal gain.
President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. surely knows and recognizes the problem of vegetable farmers, the reason why he chose to lead the Department of Agriculture, hoping that the presidential presence in the DA would make a difference. With the barrage of problems being encountered now by the agriculture department — from sugar to onions, garlic, rice and fish — it looks like the President will have a mountain of challenges ahead of him.
This situation should prod all the Cabinet members and the President’s allies in the House of Representatives and the Senate to help him succeed at least in the agricultural sector because attaining food security will be good for all of us Filipinos.
