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Philippine Star

Philippine consumers are aware of biotechnology benefits and do not have safety concerns with GMO, a recent survey by the Asian Food Information Centre (www.afic.org) shows.

The AFIC survey covered five Asian countries, namely China, India, Japan, the Philippines and South Korea. It aimed to provide insights on how consumers in Asia perceive the use of biotechnology to produce foods and how likely it is consumers are accepting the various benefits biotechnology derived foods may bring.

The survey findings for the Philippines indicate that consumers are knowledgeable and positive about food biotechnology. Consumers largely believe that biotechnology crops have the potential to deliver high quality, nutritional foods. A large majority of Philippine consumers also indicated that they accept biotechnology as a way to increase the production of food staples and to supply sustainable food. Compared to the other countries surveyed, support for biotechnology appears stronger in the Philippines.

Dr. George Fuller, executive director of AFIC, says: “Acceptance from Philippine consumers of crop biotechnology to produce nutritionally enhanced foods is an important outcome of this research. For instance, Golden Rice (enhanced in B-carotene to prevent vitamin A deficiency) is close to commercialization in the Philippines and the AFIC research shows that consumers in the country will accept this nutritionally superior rice.”

“The survey also indicates that food security is on the consumers’ mind and consumers support biotechnology’s potential for improving agricultural productivity”, added Dr. Fuller.

Key findings from the different areas included in the survey:

Plant biotechnology and food

Awareness about plant biotechnology is high in the Philippines and positively correlates with favorability and acceptance of biotechnology to produce foods.

Almost one in three Philippine consumers report that they are very knowledgeable about biotechnology and in total two thirds say they have at least some knowledge.

The majority of consumers (59 percent) have favorable impressions of plant biotechnology while 19 percent are neutral. A large majority (73 percent) of Philippine consumers believes that they would personally benefit from food biotechnology in the next five years. Key expected benefits are improved food quality and making food more affordable.

A vast majority of the surveyed consumers would be ready to purchase foods produced through biotechnology for specific benefits. More than 90 percent of the consumers would be likely to buy cheaper rice or rice with an increased nutritional value (like a higher vitamin A content) produced through biotechnology. Consumers expressed an equally high (greater than 90 percent) likelihood of buying biotechnology-derived foods such as cooking oil with reduced levels of saturated or trans fats or fresher and better tasting tomatoes.

Plant biotechnology and sustainability

Consumers in the Philippines are also very positive towards plant biotechnology if the technology is related to sustainable food production.

Although most of the consumers are not familiar with the concept of sustainable food production, once the concept is explained, 84 percent of the respondents believed sustainable food production is important. When asked to rank seven factors related to sustainable food production, Philippine consumers picked ‘increasing the production of food staples in the world, thereby reducing world hunger’ as the most important factor, and ‘increasing the productivity in the field and thus reducing production cost, thereby reducing the cost of food’ second.

Ninety-two percent of those surveyed said they support food production using plant biotechnology if the technology delivers sustainable benefits.

Confidence in safety of food supply

The survey was conducted in July and August of 2008 and 71 percent of the respondents indicated to be neutral to confident with the food safety level in the country. When asked to rank specific food safety concerns, Philippine consumers indicated a rather high level of concern for many of the issues, with food poisoning, pesticides residue, and improper handling of food topping the list. Food biotechnology is much less of a concern compared to other food safety issues with none of the respondents citing this as a top of mind concern.

Food labeling

Almost three out of four respondents said they read food labels regularly. The kind of information that Philippine consumers normally look for on food labels include expiry date (most important information for 59 percent of the consumers), vitamin content (mentioned by 13 percent of the consumers as the most important info) and food additives (seven percent).

A majority of consumers (74 percent) state that there is no information they would like to see added to food labels. Those who are not satisfied with the current information on food labels said they would like to have additional information about the content (presence of vitamins, minerals and other basic ingredients) and expiration/production dates.

GM labeling is not a spontaneous labeling demand, none of the respondents suggested presence of GM ingredients as an additional item to be included on food labels.

Compared to the other surveyed countries, consumers in the Philippines appear to be most knowledgeable about food biotechnology and the increased awareness positively correlates with acceptance.

The survey also shows that crops produced through biotechnology do not generate a high level of concern. In addition, although most Asian consumers are not familiar with the concept of “sustainable food production,” once the concept is explained, a majority believe sustainable food production is important and accept plant biotechnology if the technology contributes to a more sustainable way of producing foods. Asian consumers are also ready to accept nutritional benefits from biotechnology-derived foods.  However, specific benefits are linked to the dietary habits in each country. Consumers from the food producing countries, China, India and the Philippines, tend to be more positive about food biotechnology and the benefits it can bring compared to consumers from Korea and Japan, where local agricultural production is less important.

Methodology

AFIC commissioned The Nielsen Company Research to conduct a quantitative assessment of adult consumer attitudes toward food biotechnology from July 15 to Aug. 15, 2008. The research was conducted via an on-line survey of 1007 adults, aged 18 to 64 years, and living in five major cities in five different countries. The number of respondents for each city was: Beijing – 200; New Delhi – 204; Manila – 200; Seoul – 202 and Tokyo – 201.

Quotas were set to best reflect the demographic population in the cities.

About Asian Food Information Centre (AFIC) Singapore registered not-for-profit organization, its mission is to effectively communicate science-base information on food safety, nutrition and health information to media, regulators, food/health professionals, and consumers in the Asia region.

For more information, please contact infor@afic.org or visit the Asian Food Information Centre website www.afic.org

Manila Times

In an apparent move to beat the December 31, 2008 expiration of the country’s land reform program, the comprehensive agrarian reform program (CARP), Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Secretary Nasser Pangandaman recently ordered the department’s regional and satellite offices, nationwide, to fast-track the processing and delivery of all the remaining land acquisition and distribution targets of the agency, in light of the uncertainty of the new CARP Law getting the nod of the Senate.

“We have to fulfill our mandate to deliver land to the landless peasants, despite the limited time left for the land distribution program,” Pangandaman said.

The DAR chief said they literally have until second week of December only to complete its tasks, as the remaining weeks of the month will be irregular already because of the Christmas season. There are still close to 2-million hectares of land under CARP, which if pursued, should benefit over 500,000 landless farmers.

Asked if the DAR have already given up with the possibility of CARP’s extension, Pangandaman said, “I am still hopeful for a new CARP Law under President Arroyo’s term, especially when the Lower House just passed the 2009 national budget, that included funds for the CARP’s heart and soul component, which is the land acquisition and distribution.”

Last week, Congress endorsed the national government’s 2009 proposed budget of Php1.415 trillion, including the budget for CARP, thus, effectively giving its stamp of approval for the program’s continuity. Speaker Prospero Nograles said the 2009 budget is an “antidote to economic stagnation and is meant to address whatever problems the raging global economic slowdown may pose to the country.”

Rep. Elias Bulut, Jr., one of the prime movers for CARP’s extension, appealed to his colleagues in both houses of Congress “to stop politicking and think of the welfare of our farmers who are likely to absorb the shocks of the ongoing world financial meltdown” and further said the renewed life of CARP will “help the country weather the crisis, as it will energize the countryside.”

But militant farmers remain restless on the fate of the country’s land reform program, as the Senate is yet to concur on the proposed budget and pass the pending CARP bill.

Roy Ribo, president of the party-list group Alliance for Rural Concerns (ARC) said, “we remain vigilant as forces against the dismantling of huge private estates owned by big politico-hacienderos, continue to wield immense influence and control, over our legislature.”

The peasant leader further alleged that there are “unrelenting maneu-vers” in Congress against HB 4077, or the proposed new CARP Law. In June, Speaker Nograles formed a special committee purportedly aimed at reconciling the bill’s provisions, but farmers perceive it as a “landlord-inspired me-chanism to water down the CARP’s intent and spirit.”

The ARC lambasted the initiatives of committee member and Cama-rines Sur Rep. Luis Villafuerte, who the group said “wants to exclude from CARP, lands covered by banana, pineapple, and big plantations, which will “effectively exempt the remaining vast tracks of lands owned by landlords, and big businesses.”

The DAR’s recent “fast-tracking directive” is expected to expedite the distribution of certificates of land occupancy awards, installation of farmer-beneficiaries who are facing problems occupying their land awards and the resolution of all pending lands, up for distribution and acquisition. “We will make provincial rounds, if need be, in order to ensure that the 2008 CARP targets are met,” Pangandaman ended.

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Philippine Star

The Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA) is leading an effort to revive the local bamboo industry which promises to provide millions of dollars in export revenues for the country and presents huge potentials for rural and agriculture development.

“Recent studies have shown that bamboo has around 1,500 uses ranging from food production to building materials, aside from being a carbon sequester,” said LLDA general manager Edgardo C. Manda.

At the start of 2008, private sector and farmer interest in making bamboo – considered the “a grass of hope” – a viable industry has been increasing, said Manda.
Consider the following:

• World trade on bamboo and bamboo products was estimated at $12 billion in 2002 and was growing at $2 billion yearly. Bamboo flooring enjoys a very good demand especially in environment-conscious Europe where people are willing to pay more than $100 per square meter of bamboo flooring compared to only about $25 per square meter for a floor made of oak;

• Back in 2002, the Chamber of Furniture Industries of the Philippines said it needed some 1.5 million poles of bamboo and that the demand would increase to 1.875 million the following year. There are studies which indicate that a farmer can earn close to P300,000 per year from a one-hectare bamboo plantation.

Perhaps the more important reason why farmers and all landowners should plant bamboo is its contribution to the environment.

According to Manda, bamboo does an excellent job of rejuvenating degraded lands and protecting them against soil erosion, landslides, mudslides and slippage. Its massive root system helps control soil erosion and surface run-off in fragile riverbanks.

Bamboo is also an ideal windbreaker and helps protect farm crops, structures and other properties from destructive wind.

Finally, bamboo helps in carbon sequestration and conservation of biodiversity considering that it produces large amounts of biomass which conserve ground moisture and is converted into organic matter when it decomposes. Studies have shown that one hectare of bamboo plantation can sequester up to 12 tons carbon per year.

Importantly, too, bamboo is a renewable and sustainable resource which matures in a short time. According to Manda, bamboo has a much shorter gestation period than trees. He said a bamboo stand starts to yield after three to four years from planting. What’s more, bamboo can be harvested annually and non-destructively. It has the ability to regenerate or replace itself when damaged or extracted or harvested, Manda pointed out.

Bamboo can be productive for up to 50 years, depending on the species or variety. It can grow three times faster than the fastest growing tree.

“The Philippines somehow missed the opportunity to cash in on the viability of bamboo, unlike China which already has an established bamboo industry,” said Manda. “But it is not too late, because the need for bamboo as a watershed crop, additional food source, and provider of building materials remains constant.”

In line with this, LLDA is spearheading the 1st National Bamboo Development Forum to be held from Oct. 22-24 at the PTTC on Pasay City. Its partners are members of the Bamboo Network, an alliance of private sector individuals and business groups that will actively take part in establishing a viable bamboo industry in the Philippines.

Conrad Cariño
Manila Times

Various agriculture experts say the Philippines would not be experiencing a rice shortage at all, if the right moves had been done.

Had her administration prioritized agriculture spending during the past years, the problems the country’s farm sector is facing now would not have come into existence.

This is because the country could easily increase its per-hectare yield of palay (unhusked rice) by 50 percent from the current three to four metric tons per hectare, especially with the scientific knowledge, techniques and laboratory resources accumulated by the Philippine Rice Research Institute and the International Rice Research Institute.

Likewise, the government has vast undeveloped lands that it could have developed for accelerated agriculture activities.

Dr. Arsenio Balisacan, head of the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research and Agriculture, was very right when he said, years before the rice crisis hit the country, that the government must invest in the agriculture and rural sector to achieve food security and win over poverty.

But you still have to give credit to President Gloria Arroyo for immediately allotting billions of pesos for agriculture development under her FIELDS initiative.

The FIELDS initiative, with P43 billion in funding, massively boosts spending for loans, fertilizer, irrigation, education and training of farmers and fisher folk, dryers and other postharvest facilities, and seeds of the high-yielding, hybrid varieties. It was unveiled by the President during the National Food Summit held in April at the Clark Freeport in Pampanga.

With that much funding, Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap believes the country can achieve a rice self-sufficiency level of 98 percent by 2010. The present self-sufficiency in the grains is between 90 to 95 percent.

For this year, the Agriculture department is projecting palay production to reach 17.32 million metric tons, which is more than a million tons higher than last year’s 16.24 million metric tons.

Under the department’s Rice Self-Sufficiency Plan, palay production is expected to reach 18.55 million metric tons in 2009 and 19.77 million metric tons in 2010. This translates to a 98-percent rice self-sufficiency level. A 100-percent rice self-sufficiency level is highly possible by 2011.

Warning: Corn crisis looms

While the Agriculture department can claim the country is on its way to attaining rice self-sufficiency, a corn shortage may be looming.

In a forum held in June, an official of the GMA (Ginintuang Masaganang Ani) Corn Program said the high prices of inorganic fertilizers are forcing many farmers not to plant corn, or cut their planting of the crop by half. Corn in the Philippines is largely grown for animal feeds.

If the national production of corn does not meet the 7.9-million metric ton target for this year, the country may have to import the grain. However, that may be difficult because corn for feeds is in short supply worldwide because it is a major biofuel crop.

Nonetheless, President Arroyo deserves a “passing grade” for preventing the country from sinking into a situation where food riots would be the norm.

She even made the bold move of putting in place a moratorium on the conversion of rice lands, which past presidents never did.

On top of that, she is aggressively pushing biofuel farming projects.

In this year’s SONA, Mrs. Ar-royo can boast of revitalizing the agriculture sector with massive investments.

Des Ferriols
Philippine Star

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has scaled down its economic projection for the Philippines amid slowing exports, soaring prices and deteriorating external conditions.

In its 2008 Asian Economic Monitor, the ADB said growth in the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) this year would slow down to 5.5 percent from the original projected growth of six percent.

By 2009, the ADB said GDP growth would be largely unchanged at 5.6 percent, but this was by far slower compared with the original projection of 6.2 percent.

The ADB said in general, economic expansion in three of the big four ASEAN economies is expected to moderate. Aside from the Philippines, the economies of Malaysia and Indonesia are also expected to slow down.

Clouding over the country’s growth prospects, according to the ADB, would be soaring inflation rate that the multilateral financing agency said would go up to as high as 7.2-percent average for the whole year in 2008 and to 5.3 percent in 2009.

In April, the ADB projected the country’s inflation to average at four percent this year and 3.6 percent in 2009.

The ADB’s inflation outlook, however, was far more optimistic than the Philippine central bank which projected the rate to average between nine and 11 percent this year and to range at six to eight percent.

The ADB said its outlook for the Philippines has weakened on the deteriorating external environment which resulted to softer global demand for exports and soaring rice and fuel prices to dampen consumer spending.

As economic growth continues to slow in industrialized countries, the ADB said external demand for emerging East Asian exports is also expected to soften.

Also, the ADB said the spike in inflation in these countries is expected to directly affect consumer spending, reducing demand for household goods produced within the region – such as consumer electronics.

However, the ADB said that despite the slowdown, emerging East Asia is expected to see solid growth as it weathers the current global economic headwinds relatively well.

But the ADB said soaring global food and oil prices also implied adverse terms-of-trade effects for the region’s net importers, resulting in a significant loss of income and narrowing current account surpluses.

“The onslaught of global food and oil prices has led to a terms-of-trade shock in many emerging East Asian economies, particularly those that are net importers of food and fuel,” the ADB report said.

The ADB said the impact was already evident in terms of real income loss, slowing consumption and investment, narrowing trade balances and depreciating currencies.

As currencies depreciated, the ADB said the negative terms-of-trade effect is unlikely to reverse and might actually intensify over at least the next eight months.

The ADB said any permanent deterioration in the terms of trade would soften consumption and investment demand while hurting labor markets. This would force macroeconomic managers to adjust accordingly.

The ADB added the country’s aggregate current account surplus is expected to narrow, even closing to balance as the surplus would be eroded by rising import costs and depreciating peso.

– With Ted Torres

Joyce Pañares
Manila Standard

President Arroyo yesterday lifted a two-year ban on the conversion of lands, except rice farms, into non-agricultural purposes.

Mrs. Arroyo signed Administrative Order 226-A, which reduced the scope of the moratorium on the conversion of farmlands to other uses at the request of real estate developers.

The original ban covered all land conversion applications affecting rice lands and lands mentioned under Republic Act 8435 or the network of protected areas for agricultural and agro-industrial development.

Her latest order narrowed down the coverage of the moratorium to only rice lands including all irrigated areas and all irrigable lands already covered by irrigation projects.

The amended order excludes the following areas from the conversion:

• all alluvial plain land highly suitable for agriculture whether irrigated or not;
• agro-industrial crop lands or lands presently planted to industrial crops that support the viability or existing agricultural infrastructure and agro-based enterprises;
• highland areas located at an elevation of 500 meters or above and have the potential for growing semi-temperate and high-value crops;
• all agricultural lands that are ecologically fragile;
• mangrove areas;
• and fish sanctuaries.

“To ensure sufficient rice supply, there is a need for all lands utilized and intended for rice production to be protected from any other land use or conversion,” President Arroyo said.

Earlier, the Chamber of Real Estate and Builders Association expressed alarm over the ban, saying it will negatively impact on corporate farms that are looking for more areas to plant higher-value crops like bananas and pineapples to take advantage of rising global demand as well as real estate developers.

“The land conversion may seem to be a harmless piece of government policy, but it can be the last straw that will break the camel’s back. You cannot just tinker carelessly with the real estate industry without facing grave economic consequences,” Creba said in a statement.

Joel Pagsanghan
Philippine Daily Inquirer

In Mount Canatuan, Zamboanga del Norte, Subanon chieftain Jose Anoy looks on helplessly as a mining company tears up the sacred land of his forefathers. The place was declared by law to be the ancestral domain of the Subanon, and the tribe did not permit this mining operation. But it goes on.

In Lucena, Quezon, Reynaldo Atiga, a small-scale fisherman, is considering giving up fishing in favor of manual labor on a chicken farm. He can no longer meet the daily needs of his family through fishing.

Long wait

Lino Mendoza, an agrarian reform beneficiary in Mabitac, Laguna, has been waiting for 13 years for his Certificate of Land Ownership Award (Cloa). He wonders whether 13 would be a lucky number.

Gloria Biendo, a widow and laundry woman, is unhappy with her housing unit in a resettlement site in Pavia, Iloilo. The site is far from the city where she works. The walls of the raw house are hollow and the place is flooded during rainy season.

The farmers, indigenous peoples, fisherfolk and urban slum dwellers constitute the vast majority of the poor in the Philippines. Their poverty is rooted in a lack of control over the basic assets and natural resources on which they depend for sustenance and survival.

For farmers it is the land they till, for tribal communities their ancestral domain, for small fisherfolk the fishing grounds close to the shore and for urban slum dwellers their homes.

Reform laws

Cognizant of this social justice problem, the government passed various “asset reform” laws aimed at giving the poor control over the assets and natural resources they need for survival. The best known asset reform program–land reform–is now being hotly debated in Congress. Farmers are lobbying for the extension, with reforms, of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law of 1988 (CARL), while landlords are trying to stall Congress.

Seemingly forgotten, however, are the other asset reform laws–the Indigenous People’s Rights Act of 1997 (Ipra), the Fisheries Code of 1998, and the Urban Development and Housing Act of 1992 (Udha).

Ipra gives indigenous peoples the right to manage their ancestral domains and all development activities conducted therein must be with their consent. The Fisheries Code mandates that all fishing grounds 10 kilometers from the coastline be exclusively reserved for small fisherfolk.

Performance review

Udha provides an overall policy framework for government provision of socialized housing.

These landmark laws constitute the state’s commitment to social justice by reforming the unequal distribution of assets and resources in the country.

However, a comprehensive 2008 study by civil society has found that government’s performance in the implementation of these laws is poor. The Philippine Asset Reform Report Card (Parrc), led, by Dr. Cielito Habito and the Philippine Partnership for the Development of Human Resources in Rural Areas or PhilDHRRA (a rural development NGO network), has concluded that “governance weaknesses, including weak coordination, overlapping mandates, conflicting laws, lack of clear accountabilities and poor interagency communication have been the typical hurdles to more expeditious conduct of the various processes and delivery of services under the asset reform programs.”

Beneficiaries’ perspective

The research is a performance review of asset reform implementation from the perspective of the beneficiaries. Using a multistage sampling design, beneficiaries of the four asset reform programs were selected.

The respondents were asked to assess the processing time of the issuance of tenurial instruments (such as titles), provision of support services and threats to the asset-reform program.

Coverage

The Parrc is the most comprehensive study on asset-reform implementation in the Philippines. The study covers:

1,851 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) in agrarian reform communities (ARCs) in 32 provinces
468 beneficiaries of various government housing programs in 19 provinces
108 holders of Certificates of Ancestral Domain Claims/Titles (CADCs/CADTs) in 29 provinces
92 coastal municipalities in 30 provinces

The study is particularly authoritative with regard to Ipra and the Fisheries Code, where no comprehensive studies have been done (only case studies and desk studies exist in the research literature).

The Parrc also mobilized NGOs that have expertise in the asset-reform programs covered. These were the Koalisyon ng mga Katutubong Samahan ng Pilipinas for the indigenous peoples, John J. Carroll Institute on Church and Social Issues for the urban poor, People’s Campaign for Agrarian Reform Now for agrarian reform, and NGOs for Fisheries Reform for the fisheries sector.

On a per sector basis, the major findings of the study are as follows:

Agrarian reform

Only 44 percent of the beneficiary-respondents were able to access credit, with only 7 percent provided by government.

More than half (52.3 percent) do not have access to post-harvest facilities (e.g. thresher, drier, hauler and warehouse). Government provided less than two-fifths (37.9 percent) of these.

The time lag from Cloa issuance to its distribution to ARBs is more than one year.

More than one-tenth (13.7 percent) said they experienced legal or physical harassment by one or more sectors. This includes harassment from landowners, the military, other farmers (due to boundary disputes) and insurgents.

Fisheries

Most respondents (78.3 percent) do not have adequate housing, even if the Fisheries Code mandates government to provide fisherfolk settlements.

More than half of the respondents (56.8 percent) said that commercial fishing vessels encroached on municipal waters supposedly reserved for small-scale (subsistence) fisherfolk.

Only one-third (32.6 percent) of total respondents have access to post-harvest facilities (e.g. fish port, ice plants and cold storage, fish landing, fish processing plants, etc).

Less than two-thirds of the total respondents have access to credit and government has provided only one-third of it.

Only two-thirds (66.7 percent) of local government units with coastal areas issued an ordinance setting forth the extent of their municipal waters. Without ordinances, municipal waters delineated by the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority are not legally enforceable.

Ancestral domain

Extractive activities are present in more than one-third (39.8 percent) of the ancestral domains, with logging and mining as the most prevalent.

A majority of the extractive activities (almost three-fourths or 72.1 percent of the total number of extractive activities) are in operation without the free, prior and informed consent of the tribes, as mandated by Ipra.

Delays in processing of tenurial instruments persist: It takes three years from the application of CADT to its issuance and another six months from issuance to awarding to the tribes. It will also take at least four years to convert a CADC to CADT.

On the other hand, almost three-fourths (74.1 percent) of the respondents have access to infrastructure and extension services.

Socialized housing

Government has various housing programs for the poor. The Community Mortgage Program allows the urban poor to collectively purchase the land they are occupying through a community mortgage. Presidential Land Proclamations are government lands officially declared open for disposition as housing sites to qualified beneficiaries.

In addition, government is mandated to provide resettlement to poor families whose homes are demolished by virtue of a court order, infrastructure projects or clearing of danger zones.

Mortgage program

Only 32 percent of the respondents have drainage systems and only 24 percent have water supply systems.

More than one-third (36 percent) of Community Mortgage Program sites do not have paved roads and almost half (45 percent) have no streetlights.

A majority (56 percent) have not yet received any certificate of lot entitlement.

A majority (87 percent) are not yet paying the monthly amortization.

Almost half (49.4 percent) reported that their communities have no Community Development Plan.

Only 39 percent reported that their community has an approved subdivision plan.

Only half of the beneficiaries (54 percent) have been given an Individual Notice of Lot Award.

Only one-fifth (23 percent) have started to secure ownership of their land through the payment of amortization.

Social equalizer

Despite the poor asset reform implementation record, the study notes that most of those who have benefited from asset reform see their lives as having improved. This only underscores the importance of asset reform as a “social equalizer,” which must be implemented effectively by government, in partnership with concerned stakeholders.

Due to the various shortcomings in implementation, the study recommends that a deliberate process audit be conducted for each asset reform program to pinpoint specific bottlenecks and address delays and other inadequacies. The study concludes that ultimately, successful asset reform implementation is a matter of good governance and political will.

(Joel Pagsanghan, MDM and MPA, is the research coordinator of the Philippine Asset Reform Report Card. Comments are welcome at nc@phildhrra.org)

Ancestral domain

39.8%
Percentage of ancestral domains where extractive activities like logging and mining are present

72.1%
of total number of extractive activities are in operation without the consent of tribes

74.1%
of respondents have access to infrastructure and extension services

Fisheries

56.8%
of respondents said commercial fishing vessels encroached on
fisherfolk-reserved waters

32.6%
of respondents have access to fish ports, ice plants and other post-harvest facilities

78.3%
of respondents have inadequate housing

Agrarian reform

13.7%
of respondents said they experienced legal or physical harassment from landowners and other groups

52.3%
of respondents do not have access to haulers, warehouses and other post-harvest facilities

44%
of beneficiary-respondents were able to access credit

Socialized housing

32%
of respondents have working drainage systems

56%
of respondents have not yet received any lot entitlement certificate

49.4%
of respondents reported that their communities have no community development plan

Ira Karen Apanay
Manila Times

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has released a study revealing that land degradation is intensifying in many parts of the world and 33 million Filipinos are among the 1.5 billion people affected by it.

“Defined as a long-term decline in ecosystem function and productivity, land degradation is increasing in severity and extent in many parts of the world, with more than 20 percent of all cultivated areas, 30 percent of forests and 10 percent of grasslands undergoing degradation,” the food organization said in a statement on Monday.

The study associated land degradation with farming after data showed that almost 20 percent of degrading land is cropland, or more than 20 percent of all cultivated areas; 24 percent is broadleaved forest; 19 percent needle-leaved forests; and 20 to 25 percent rangeland.

Cropland occupies only 12 percent of the land area, so degradation is over-represented in cropland globally, the study explained.

It linked land degradation to population pressure and poverty. “Comparison of rural population density with land degradation shows no simple pattern. Globally, the correlation coefficient is [negative] 0.3; in general, the more people, the less degradation. However, in some contexts, population pressure is positively related to land degradation.”

In relation to poverty, the study said, “Taking infant mortality rate and the percentage of children under five who are underweight as proxies, there is some global relationship between land degradation and poverty. However, a much more rigorous analysis is needed.”

The food organization announced recently that based on the study using data taken over a 20-year period, an estimated 1.5 billion people, or one-fourth of the world’s population, depend directly on land that is being degraded.

The study, Global Assessment of Land Degradation and Improvement, showed that there are 33,064,628 million Filipinos affected on land that is being degraded. It said total degraded area in the country is 132,275 square kilometers.

The Philippines, though, was not listed among the top countries experiencing severity of land degradation. Russia leads the table with 16.5 percent, followed by Canada (11.6 percent), the United States (7.9 percent), China (7.6 percent) and Australia (6.2 percent).

The study said the ranking by loss of Net Primary Productivity (million tons) is: Canada (94), Indonesia (68), Brazil (63), China (59) and Australia (50).

Ranking by proportion of the country affected is: Swaziland (95 percent), Angola (66 percent), Gabon (64 percent), Thailand (60 percent) and Zambia (60 percent).

Ranking by rural population affected is: China (457 million), India (177 million), Indonesia (86 million), Bangladesh (72 million) and Brazil (46 million).

The Food and Agriculture Organization also explained that the consequences of land degradation include reduced productivity, migration, food insecurity, damage to basic resources and ecosystems and loss of biodiversity through changes to habitats at both species and genetic levels.

“Land degradation also has important implications for climate-change mitigation and adaptation, as the loss of biomass and soil organic matter releases carbon into the atmosphere and affects the quality of soil and its ability to hold water and nutrients,” notes Parviz Koohafkan, the director of the food organization’s Land and Water Division.

The data indicated that despite the stated determination of 193 countries that ratified the United Nations Conference to Combat Desertification in 1994, land degradation is worsening rather than improving, the organization said in a statement.

“Some 22 percent of degrading land are in very arid to dry-subhumid areas, while 78 percent of it are in humid regions. The study found that degradation is being driven mainly by poor land management,” it added.

The present study shows that land degradation since 1991 has affected new areas and some historically degraded areas were so severely affected that they are now stable having been abandoned or managed at low levels of productivity, said FAO after comparing the present study with previous assessments.

The Food and Agriculture Organization further said that the study shows that land degradation remains a priority issue requiring renewed attention by individuals, communities and governments.

Conrad M. Cariño
Manila Times

Official blames high prices of fertilizers for crisis

Barely recovering from a rice crisis, the country faces a major corn shortage that could cause a domestic shortfall in meat products and force the closure of firms involved in the livestock and poultry industry.

In a consultative meeting Thursday on the commercialization of organic and microbial fertilizers, Dennis Araullo, the head of GMA (Ginintuang Masaganang Ani) Corn Program, said the high prices of inorganic fertilizers are forcing many farmers not to plant corn, or cut their planting of the crop by half. Corn in the Philippines is largely grown for animal feeds.

If the national production of corn does not meet the 7.9-million metric ton target for this year, the country may have to import the grain. This option poses problems, since corn is in short supply worldwide because it is a major biofuel crop.

“The [corn production] gains in the first quarter is significant, but worldwide, we could not find corn supplies. Corn is very expensive, and it is also used as biofuel [feedstock],” Araullo explained to journalists during a meeting in Quezon City.

The Department of Agriculture has declared a no-corn importation policy for this year, even if about 120,000 metric tons of corn were imported in 2008.

Araullo said a corn shortage will badly hit the domestic livestock and poultry industry, possibly forcing the closure of many firms in that industry.

If that is not enough, people who eat white corn in place of rice will also be affected, and might switch back to eating rice. Based on estimates of local food experts, up to 15 million Filipinos are eating white corn instead of white rice.

Problem with fertilizers

Araullo blamed the high prices of inorganic or chemical fertilizers for farmers wanting to give up or to cut back on corn production.

During the consultative meeting, Dr. Norlito Gicana, the executive director of the Fertilizers and Pesticides Authority, disclosed that a bag of urea now costs between P1,800 to P1,900 per bag, and that the increasing prices of crude oil in the world market are to blame. As of April, one bag of urea costs about P1,200. Most inorganic fertilizers are made from crude oil.

Because of the high prices of inorganic fertilizers, the Department of Agriculture through its various agencies, such as the Bureau of Soils and Water Management, wants more farmers to start using organic and microbial fertilizers, while cutting down on the quantity of chemical inputs.

“Organic fertilizers cannot totally replace inorganic fertilizers, but the good quality of organic fertilizers should be in order,” Gicana said.

Self-sufficiency target

This year, the corn production target is 7.37 million metric tons, which is about 9 percent higher compared to the 6.74-million metric tons production in 2007.

Araullo said the 7.37-million metric ton target translates to a corn self-sufficiency level of 94 percent. The Agriculture department is aiming for 100-percent corn sufficiency in 2009 or 2010. About 2.7 million hectares of lands are planted to corn.

The first-quarter production of corn hit 1.99 million metric tons. The figures for the second quarter are not yet available.

Importing more corn would be very expensive for the Philippines, since its price is P13 to P14 per kilo.

In the US, the price is about P15 and in Argentina, P15.60, excluding freight cost, which is about $125 per metric ton.

Because of the possible major corn shortage, Gicana said the Agriculture department will set talks with the Land Bank of the Philippines to provide financing for corn farming and the production of organic fertilizers.

“We’ll try to talk with LandBank on how they can help in corn and organic fertilizers,” he added.

Another option is to provide subsidy coupons for fertilizers to corn farmers. Rice growers have been availing of subsidy coupons for rice.

Bobit S. Avila
Philippine Star

While others may say that it is too premature to conduct a postmortem on why the Comprehensive Land Reform Program (CARP) failed, however I do believe that for all intents and purposes CARP is already dead because there has been no official extension by Congress as of June 11th regardless of what Congress under House Speaker Prospero Nograles said that because there is still money unspent for the budget of CARP, then CARP isn’t considered dead. Talk about the art of double speak that only a true blooded Traditional Politician sorely lacking of a political can say.

Yet the next day after the death of CARP, we still saw those one-page advertisements urging the President to call for a special session of Congress to pass the CARP Extension Law. These ads were signed by “Individuals” like Most Rev. Angel N. Lagdameo D.D. Archbishop of Jaro, Most Rev. Oscar Cruz Archbishop of Lingayen-Dagupan and Most Rev. Antonio J. Ledesma Archbishop of Cagayan de Oro and many others. I was really surprised that this time I did not read the name of our beloved Ricardo Cardinal Vidal who earlier supported the extension of CARP. Could it be that Cardinal Vidal finally realized that extending CARP meant the extension of the corruption and the inefficiency of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR)? I certainly hope so.

In that paid ad, most of the bishops who supported the extension of CARP no longer carried the name of the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) and we can only second guess why this time around, they didn’t carry the banner of the CBCP, which they usually do. Could it be due to the fact that not all priests support the extension of CARP?

If there’s anyone to blame for the failure of CARP, the blame is squarely on the shoulders of the original creators of CARP. There is no doubt that CARP had a noble goal… but what we learned so much about life could be summed up in one quote from an author whose name escapes me, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions!” CARP was a noble inspired program for social justice; therefore, injustice should never have been part and parcel of its implementation. Sadly, CARP was riddled with injustice and corruption; this is why it failed from the very beginning especially when Tita Cory’s Hacienda Luisita was exempted from its implementation!

CARP would have been successful if our lawmakers enacted a law that would have given land to the landless that was at the same time, fair and equitable to the landowners. Fairness and equity should be the essence of our laws. But instead CARP was confiscatory and it gave lands to the landless at the expense of the landowners who were paid very low prices for the land that they had tilled for most of their life… if they were paid at all! To date, some 270,000 landowners remain unpaid because of this injustice!

Then when CARP was launched, its implementer, the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) worsened this already inequitable law when they did not only give lands to the landless farmers, they also gave lands to anyone considered landless, worse of all they gave lands to underage children and that’s just the tip of the iceberg of corruption that plagued CARP!

To date, the DAR hasn’t given any satisfactory report as to what happened to CARP in its 20-year program. If we are all interested in getting an accounting of this, it is due to the fact that a huge chunk of the billions of pesos spent for CARP came from the ill-gotten Marcos wealth… from many sequestered companies, monies that were stolen and recovered and only to be stolen again by some small time corrupt bureaucrat in the DAR! This is why we must demand an accounting from the DAR! If we conducted a lifestyle check on those Municipal Agrarian Reform Officers (MARO) chances are good that we would find traces of the Marcos loot in their pockets!

But perhaps the worse sin that the DAR committed against the Filipino people is that, they gave away only the cultivated lands of many people who were already tilling these lands. In their desire to get the huge tracts of lands from the rich landowners, they did a grave injustice to the middle class farmer who tilled his land after serving the government for years. CARP should have given idle or uncultivated government lands to real farmers, then it would have really worked as a program.

Again, while Congress is once again in recess, it is time for us to remind our Congressmen to reflect deeply that if they vote for an extension of the same CARP that was enacted 20-years ago, we might not vote for them in the coming 2010 elections. CARP will no doubt be a major election issue or debate for the 2010 Presidential elections… if there will be a debate at all!

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For email responses to this article, write to vsbobita@mozcom.com. Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.philstar.com. He also hosts a weekly talkshow entitled, “Straight from the Sky” shown every Monday only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 on SkyCable at 8 in the evening.