By ISABELA RIVERA
Bulatlat.com
MANILA — Regardless of whether the yield is good or not, Alipio Chico, 69, a farmer from Gapan, Nueva Ecija, must give a “buwisan” (payment) of 12 sacks of palay per hectare every harvest season to his landowner.
“Whether you harvest enough or not, you are obliged to give it away even if you end up with nothing. That is the primary payment for the land,” Chico told Bulatlat.
As a result, Chico barely earns anything during harvest seasons, burdened by the high costs they have incurred. “There is a surplus in our harvest during summer time and palay price was high but it was not enough to cover the production cost. It is hardly a break even.”
Farmers like Chico hope the government will allocate public funding to ease their difficult situation. In the proposed 2025 budget, however, the allocation for the country’s agriculture department is not promising.
Of the proposed P6.352 trillion (US$113 billion) national budget for 2025, only 2.01 percent or P128 billion (US$2.29 billion) is allocated to the Department of Agriculture (DA).
This is higher than its current budget of P111.69 billion (US$2 billion).
Peasant struggles
Despite the yearly incremental increases in the budget allocation for the agriculture department, peasant groups said it could hardly cover the needed support for Filipino farmers.
Danilo Ramos of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas said the current cost of production per hectare of rice field can reach up to P70,000 (US$1,240). As such, farmers usually borrow from local usurers.
However, the farm gate price of rice remains low. Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) show that the farmgate price of dry palay as of June 2024 is P24.59 (US$0.44). This is more than twice the amount of its market price.
Ramos said he received reports of Cordillera farmers receiving only P2,000 in aid last March 2024. “It is very little.”
In his third State of the Nation Address (SONA), Marcos Jr. stressed the government’s commitment to prioritizing local rice production. He highlighted the continued expansion and eventual permanence of Kadiwa Centers across the country, the establishment of new irrigation projects, and the implementation of disaster mitigation measures. Farmers’ groups, however, questioned these initiatives, saying that they fail to address their real agricultural struggles.
Their situation is worsened with the lack of aid and due compensation to farmers whose farm lands have been hit by disaster.
“We strongly condemn the large budget that is allotted not for production—military expenses, confidential intelligence funds, or unprogrammed funds, to cite a few. This should not proceed. Increased funding for the agriculture sector would enhance production in the country,” Ramos said.
Pocketing public funds?
Ariel Casilao, national chairperson of Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA), said that food security is not a priority of the Marcos administration.
“The top three allocations in the NEP for 2025 are for servicing foreign and domestic debt, infrastructure projects, and, third, a combined allotment for defense…the budget for food is being neglected,” he stated.
For one, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) receives a whopping P900 billion (US$15.98 billion), the budget for debt servicing is nearly as large at P876.7 billion (US$15.2 billion), while the Department of National Defense is allotted with P256.1 billion (US$4.55 billion).
Casilao said that a considerable percentage of the P211.3 billion allocated to infrastructure for farm-to-market roads tends to be pocketed by politicians and contractors.
The DA and its partner agencies previously issued a joint administrative order adopting and implementing the National Farm-to-Market Roads Network Plan (FMNRNP) 2023-2028 which mandates that this project be financed by available budgets and included in the agencies’ annual planning and budget proposals under the NEP starting in 2025. For next year, the proposed fund for FMNRNP amounts to P23.18 billion (US$411 million).
“Even if 50 percent of this amount were redirected to compensation and production subsidies for two planting seasons for millions of rice farmers, the total budget would still be insufficient,” Casilao said.
Demands
Casilao challenged public officials to increase funding for the country’s agriculture, saying that their proposal is “very direct and will address the issue of the food crisis.”
For his part, Chico said that the government must support farmers.
“We do not have knowledge of any other livelihood, just this one. We were not able to acquire education…farming is all that our father left us. It would be beneficial if farmers could receive funding for their farm expenses so that they can at least improve their situation and get out of hardship.” Chico said. (JJE, RTS DAA)
