CAFTA and tubong Alunan

FIFTY years ago, this was the time for monetizing the sugar quedans. It was the middle of the milling season and the planters knew, more or less, the total tonnage of the year’s sugar crop. Then, the big planters would go to the usual destination, the car showrooms to order the latest models. Then, to the month-long vacation in either North America or Europe. Hong Kong was for the small planters. Theirs was a life of plantation luxury. A US export quota propped up by the Laurel-Langley Agreement protected sugar prices from the swings and vagaries of the global market—and allowed the sugar planters to live lavish lifestyles and be the makers of presidents. If you wanted to be president then, you had to have the backing of the sugar barons.

There was no other life much better than theirs. To think that they have been living off the sweat of their indentured tenants and hacienda workers for almost a generation. But 50 years ago, this was really the case.

This year, had it not been for the unwise inclusion of sugar on the protected list, would have been the start of a zero tariff for sugar at least for trade within the Asean region. An administration unfriendly to sugar interest would have thumbed down the desperate plea from the sugar planters to have sugar included in the protected list of commodities but we all know that this is an administration still viewing sugar interest favorably.

So sugar is propped up artificially, but we all know it is on ICU. And the life support system would be at best on a short-term basis. Sooner or later, the sugar sector has to confront the harsh realities that it should have confronted half a century ago: its failure to innovate and modernize, the aging, inefficient mills and refineries and the failure to undertake serious research and development work.

This is quite depressing but it is true. The last impressive sugar strain was developed during the time the grandfather of Rafael Alunan 3rd, who is himself a grandfather now, was Agriculture secretary. It is the fat cane sugar we sell on the streets, not the one for milling and refining. It is called tubong Alunan, after the original Rafael Alunan.

Without the last-minute decision to protect sugar from zero tariff in the Asean trade, what would take place was foreseeable: cheap and better quality sugar from Thailand and elsewhere crowding out domestically produced sugar, which would sooner or later lead to the collapse of the local sugar industry.

Sugar is mentioned here because of its depressing and hard fall from its glory years. But is not the only agricultural commodity that is on its death throes. Most of Philippine agriculture is. And trade agreements such as the AFTA (Asean Free Trade Agreement) and the trade agreement of the Asean countries with China (CAFTA), which takes effect this year, will hasten the demise of much of Philippine agriculture.

There is one underlying reason why trade agreements, which theoretically should be catalysts for growth, are generally bad for the agriculture sector: we cannot compete with the agricultural powerhouses of the Asean region. We cannot compete within Asia. If China is in the picture, we are kulelat.

It is this sad context that pushed the party-list Butil to draft a letter addressed to the presidential candidates. It is a challenge to them to dot their policy planks with the basics for the survival of Philippine agriculture. Ka Nellie Chavez, the party’s first representative, said the first focus should be research and development, agricultural R and D.

The development of a world-class genetic pool for agriculture (from crops to animal health) should be undertaken first, before anything else, said Ka Nellie. Irrigation, extension work, post-harvest, credit—all of these investments will go to naught unless you have world-class genetics.

Put in place the genetics, then the collaterals and the cognates. This was how Ka Nellie placed the agricultural priorities. But how?

The start is a Malacañang-mandated budget recommendation (via the development budget coordinating committee or DBCC) that proposes a P5 billion starting budget for agricultural R and D.

The next step is a separate endowment for public research universities such as the UP at Los Baños, the Mindanao State University and the Central Luzon State University. The agenda is to reinvigorate the under-funded agricultural R and D in these state-run schools.

Given adequate funds, we all know what the state-run universities with good agricultural faculties can do.

Any effort to make Philippine agriculture competitive has to start with a well-funded R and D. Make the research centers bloom. We can’t sit on research laurels earned close to a century ago, like the tubong Alunan. –MARLEN V. RONQUILLO, Manila Times

mvrong@yahoo.com