So stark, so devastating: “Why Filipino Small Farmers Remain Poor[1]” – the title of Fermin N Adriano’s Thursday, 27 August 2020’s column at the Manila Times.
Mr Adriano asks:
Why are Filipino small farmers poor? Why do they remain poor despite the fertile lands and abundant supply of fresh water in the Philippines?
He gives 3 reasons:
(1) Low retention ceiling – must be 17 ha total for a family of 4 children.
(2) Farmer cooperatives not business-oriented.
(3) Extension work devolved to the LGUs, which are not prepared to do the work.
Mr Adriano also blames local journalism that comes out in media that he claims are not as reputable as that of the Economist, Washington Post, and Financial Times, “whose pieces are well thought out articles based on solid research and analyses.”
Reading that, I feel Mr Adriano is denigrating us journalists who are not affiliated with any “reputable” media. Well, I’m a UP Los Baños alumnus. A blogger, my journalism, for Mr Adriano’s information, is THINK Journalism: True? Helpful? Inspiring? Necessary? Kind? I started my international journalism in agriculture when Secretary General William Dar of ICRISAT hired me to work from home, WFH; ICRISAT in India, I in the Philippines; 2007-2014 inclusive. ICRISAT collected my essays and published 7 books out of them.
WFH. THINK Journalism. Mr Adriano cannot find any other journalistic act declaring such in the whole world!
“Low retention ceiling” – Mr Adriano is not a farmer; he does not know 17 ha for a family of 4 children are too many! My father cultivated 3 ha, and we all 3 children went our ways and gathered our college degrees.
Mr Adriano says:
A farmer can earn a decent income from 1.5 hectares of land if he is cultivating high value crops like vegetables or cut flowers. However, if he is tilling traditional crops like rice, corn or coconut, there is no way he will earn a decent income from farming. No matter how efficient the farmer is in tending his farm, no matter how much assistance or subsidies the government provides to such a farmer, it will be impossible for him to earn an income adequate to support the needs of a family of five or six members with the land size that he has. It is worth pointing out that most of our farmers are engaged in the cultivation of traditional crops.
Let me challenge Mr Adriano to test me as a farmer. I will grow rice in 1.5 hectares anywhere and show much, much more than “a decent income from farming” – it will be a revelation. I will use no in/organic fertilizer. I will use only a hand tractor to cultivate, with rotavator blades – where lies my secret.
Mr Adriano says, “Farmer cooperatives are not business-oriented.” No, many of them are not.
We have to teach them – those who know their economics have to teach them. Don’t look at me!@517
[1]https://www.manilatimes.net/2020/08/27/business/agribusiness/why-filipino-small-farmers-remain-poor/759852/?fbclid=IwAR3fJFdgWzuwp0slBwVgWKR5bktntZHlx1mdRWHVVVinZfOWVWS8qbPwHNA
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