Recommended Senate priorities: water, governance, budget support
The Alyansa Agrikultura (AA) recommends three legislative measures for the incoming Senate to achieve agriculture transformation. They center on water, governance and budget support.
Founded in 2003, AA is one of three coalitions in the AgriFisheries Alliance (AFA), which started in 2016. AA represents farmers and fisherfolks.
The Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food Inc. represents agribusiness, while the Coalition for Agriculture Modernization in the Philippines represents science and academe. The AFA has previously advocated clear positions on the three areas recommended for the new Senate’s attention.
Water
Agriculture uses 70 percent of our water resources. But our water governance has been found lacking. In 2017, a public-private water task force reporting to the President was created. It had six government departments: Agriculture, Environment and Natural Resources, Public Works and Highways, Health, Interior and Local Government and Economic Planning. AFA was appointed as the secretary general.
With national consultations, this task force produced six volumes on different water governance aspects. Its main recommendation was to create a structure that would coordinate and manage the 32 government water-related agencies.
In a 2016 study, the Asian Development Bank had previously rated our water governance at the bottom 30 percent of 48 countries. Partly because of the task force work, this rating has significantly improved.
However, the central water management structure was not created. As early as his 2022 State of the Nation Address, President Marcos identified the creation of a Department of Water Resources as a legislated priority. After three years, the new Senate should now consider passing this into a law.
Governance
Our agriculture sector, with individual farms averaging at 0.9 hectare, cannot succeed without economies of scale. Thailand, whose 2023 agricultural exports of $61.4 billion was about 10 times our exports of $6.3 billion, owes much of its success to economies of scale. In 1972, it changed its agriculture ministry name to Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives.
On Sept. 3, in his first year in office, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. created the Agriculture Cooperative Enterprise Development Services to supplement the Farmers and Fisheries Clustering and Consolidation program and “to achieve economies of scale and capacity building for farmers.”
However, this unit does not have the authority and resources to do what Thailand has done. The Senate must therefore create a structure such as a Bureau of Cooperatives and Consolidation. We urgently need this legislated structure to have the authority and resources to achieve the necessary economies of scale.
Budget support
Over the last decade, the share of agriculture in the national budget averaged at 2 percent, only one-third that of Vietnam’s 6 percent. Because of this budget support, Vietnam’s agricultural exports reached $62.4 billion last year. More exports mean more jobs, which is partly why Vietnam’s national poverty rate is 3 percent. Our national poverty rate is 14 percent, with our rural poverty at an alarming 30 percent.
The current administration has thankfully increased agriculture’ budget share to 3 percent. The new Senate must now legislate a significant agriculture budget increase with a plan to reach Vietnam’s 6-percent share in three years. In addition, the new Senate must systematically use its oversight function to ensure that the already small agriculture budget is at least used properly.
The Commission on Audit has recorded a 30-percent level of the Department of Agriculture’s unliquidated and unexplained expenses for three consecutive years, The Philippine Council of Agriculture and Fisheries, in its private-sector monitoring of the DA budget, showed the same 30-percent level of underutilized projects. These indicate corruption and waste.
Tiu-Laurel has been the most effective agriculture secretary in fighting corruption, as evidenced by the 300-percent increase in agriculture smuggling apprehensions since he took over. But it is the Senate with its budget oversight function that can best ensure proper use of the budget to minimize the massive corruption and waste.
With the new Senate’s legislative initiatives focusing on water, governance and budget support, our agriculture sector can now develop more effectively, just like Thailand and Vietnam.
