Problem is politicized agri policy
Posted on December 13, 2006 - Filed Under Punch Forum |
Eduardo Pontaoe
13 Dec 2006
Mr. Sosimo Pablico:
The advancement in agriscience, it's wonderful. Your take in this farm mechanization if available, is a breath of fresh air to the poor and struggling Filipino farmer. With the different phases in rice planting and harvesting that can be covered with this machine, it would be a great boon to the agri-rice-industry of the Philippines.
But, how you prioritize implementation of policy? You are comparing the island of Formosa in its farming needs on its success which by comparison is so small in scope. Formosa is a disciplined country…no politicization on its farming requirements. If this project proposed by Dr. Andales of the PhilRice Institute, an agency of the government then there would be problems you could encounter at once. Distribution of equipment in Pangasinan alone would be a killer.
In my place, we plant three times irrigation withstanding. Should a farmer wait to have his farm tilled while the seedlings are growing fast and not hire a private tractor? Which way, Mr. Pablico? Cooperatives to manage the deposits of palay harvested are minimal.
Let me be perspicuous on this. In the town where I came from, we got FACOMA… a cooperative so politicized that farmers don't even dare to go but the private rice mills. FACOMA as of this writing does not exist anymore. It was a disastrous and inefficient entity that revival of its kind won't happen. It may work in the pilot area of Nueva Ecija but not in Pangasinan. The regional mentality of those farmers is so different from these parts politics wise.
I hope, Mr. Pablico, if you hurdle the hedgerows something will come good out of it or it's just an agricultural calisthenics in frivolousness.
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