{"id":8674,"date":"2019-10-16T11:38:09","date_gmt":"2019-10-16T03:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/?p=8674"},"modified":"2019-10-16T11:38:10","modified_gmt":"2019-10-16T03:38:10","slug":"agri-sector-slumps-due-to-continuous-government-neglect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/agri-sector-slumps-due-to-continuous-government-neglect\/","title":{"rendered":"Agri sector slumps due to continuous government neglect"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Even prior to rice\nliberalization, the country has become increasingly dependent on food imports<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Long-time government neglect and low prioritization has put\nthe agriculture sector in a chronic crisis, said research group IBON. The group\nsaid that this is in line with government\u2019s advancement of neoliberal policies favoring\nlocal and foreign big business. The Duterte government continues this by giving\nminimal support to the agriculture sector. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>IBON said that declining share in gross domestic product and\nagricultural productivity per capita, increasing import dependence, rising\ntrade deficit, and widespread rural poverty are signs that this crisis is\nworsening.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The agriculture sector\u2019s share in the economy has shrunk\nfrom over 40% in the 1960s to less than 10% in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Agricultural productivity per capita peaked at Php7,862 in\n1981, declined, and then was in a period of recovery from 1999-2008. But\nagricultural productivity per capita again fell to Php7,052 in 2018, noted the\ngroup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>IBON also said that the country has become increasingly\ndependent on food imports even before rice liberalization this year. For\ninstance, garlic imports made up only 1.1% of the country\u2019s consumption in\n1990, but this spiked to 90% in 2017. Import dependency ratio also increased\nsignificantly with coffee (-7.7% to 56%); beef (8.5% to 36%); tuna (3.7% to 17%);\nonion (-14.3% to 15%); potato (0% to 15%); and pork (0% to 13%) in the same\nperiod. Meanwhile, rice import dependency ratio declined from 9% in 1990 to 5%\nin 2016. But this rose to 6.6% in 2017 and is expected to be higher due to the\ninflux of rice imports under the Rice Liberalization Law. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The agriculture trade deficit has also increased by 30 times\nfrom US$287 million in 1994 to US$8 billion in 2018. In the first quarter of\nthis year, the agriculture trade deficit was a staggering US$2.1 billion, said\nthe group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>IBON said widespread rural poverty is another indicator of\nagriculture in crisis. Official figures show that the poverty incidence among\nfarmers (34.3%) and fisherfolk (34%) is higher than the national average\n(21.6%). IBON estimates that, if based on more reasonable standards of poverty\nmeasurement, at least 90%, if not all farmers and fisherfolk, are impoverished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This chronic agriculture crisis is due to government\u2019s\nchronically low prioritization of the agriculture sector, said IBON. The group\nnoted that from 1981 until 2020, the annual average share of agriculture and\nagrarian reform was only 4.1% of the national budget. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This low priority of agriculture is being continued under\nthe Duterte administration. The group said that the 3.5% share of agriculture\nin the proposed 2020 budget is the lowest since 2004 (3.3%). Also, from 2017 to\n2020, the annual average share of agriculture in the national budget was only\n3.6% &#8211; the lowest since the Ramos administration (3.5%). The average share of\nagriculture was higher under Estrada (4.4%), Arroyo (4.7%), and Aquino (4.2%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>IBON said that immediate steps government should take to\narrest the agriculture crisis is to wipe off if not significantly reduce all\nforms of loans including amortization for awarded lands, and to substantially\nincrease support and subsidies for the agriculture and agrarian reform sectors.\nIt should also suspend, and eventually repeal, policies like the Rice\nLiberalization Law, that are harming domestic production and farmers\u2019\nlivelihoods. But to truly strengthen domestic agriculture, government needs to\nimplement long-term policies that prioritize rural development over big\nbusiness interests. ###<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Photo by Lito Ocampo<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Even prior to rice liberalization, the country has become increasingly dependent on food imports Long-time government neglect and low prioritization has put the agriculture sector in a chronic crisis, said research group IBON. The group said that this is in line with government\u2019s advancement of neoliberal policies favoring local and foreign big business. The Duterte [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8675,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_expiration-date-status":"saved","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[]},"categories":[2048,14],"tags":[1834,1902,373,1885,347,1463,494,116,2047],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8674"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8674"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8676,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8674\/revisions\/8676"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}