Asean integration does not bode well for PH agriculture, says exec

DAVAO CITY, Philippines — Asean economic integration might have dire consequences for Philippine agriculture, which remains largely underdeveloped and “un-mechanized” and is, therefore, ill-equipped to compete in the free market, an undersecretary in the Department of Labor and Employment said here Tuesday.

Speaking at a forum here, Dr. Rene Ofreneo, a former dean of the school of labor and industrial relations at the University of the Philippines, said the failure to mechanize the agriculture sector and poor farm-to-market linkages render Philippine agriculture vulnerable to unfair trade practices when the Asean market finally opens up.

Ofreneo, who guested at a roundtable discussion on rebuilding the damaged Philippine agricultural sector, said the unilateral liberalization measures undertaken by the Aquino administration aggravate this dire situation for Filipino farmers.

“Failure to modernize and diversify makes Philippine agriculture unable to compete in the Asean free market,” Ofreneo said. “Declining investments – both public and private — in agriculture have led to declining productivity, deficient value addition and poor job creation,” he said.

The forum, organized by the Asia Pacific Network for Food Security (APNFS) and the Manila-based Integrated Rural Development Foundation (IRDF), discussed recent developments in agrarian reform and land investments in the Philippines and the implications of global and regional developments such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ integration in 2015.

The scheduled Asean integration in 2015 is aimed at transforming the region into a single market and production base, where goods, services, investment, skilled labor, and capital move freely and compete in the global market.

Ofreneo said that even among other Asean members, strong state support for agriculture fueled economic growth, which is lacking in the Philippine agriculture.

“Also, successful land reform in countries like Japan, Korea and Taiwan have shown that the equalizing effect of land redistribution was the necessary foundation to spawn rural development and activate rural industries,” he said.

In contrast, the Philippines’s Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program continues to be mired in the ideological conflicts and bureaucratic bungling, resulting in an unfinished program with the legal cases expected to swell beyond 2016, Ofreneo said.

“The Left seeks a ‘genuine’ agrarian reform that is confiscatory, the Right wants the government to ‘let go’ of CARP/CARPER. The Moderates, meanwhile, want an extension and a bigger budget for support programs. With all the competing demands, no wonder we can’t move the land reform forward,” he said.

Ofreneo warned that because of the divisiveness, a damaged Philippine agricultural sector may not be able to withstand the threat of the Asean integration in 2015.

“How can we be ready for regional integration when we do not even have the industrial policy in support of agri-industrialization to calibrate trade policies and negotiations?” Ofreneo asked.

He presented a road map where he outlined steps to ensure attainment of genuine agri-industrial development in the country; which included the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) in all areas, the transformation of agrarian reform beneficiaries and small farmers into modern agribusiness producers; a review of the government’s agricultural deregulation policy and commitments to World Trade Organization, the Asean Free Trade Agreement and other free trade agreements to secure flexibility, protection of jobs and farm incomes to realize sustainable growth. –Germelina Lacorte |Inquirer Mindanao

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