INSUFFICIENT added value in agricultural products in Mindanao affects the sales and income generation of farmers, an official from the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) said.
The 60% of the economy and 6 out of 10 jobs in Mindanao are attributed to the agriculture value chain yet the poorest of the poor are farmers and fisherfolks, Romeo Montenegro, MinDA deputy executive director, said.
“Agriculture is the strength of Mindanao, however, it is host to 9 of the 10 poorest provinces in the country, in Mindanao rural agriculture areas,” he said.
Ironically, areas in Mindanao where most of the agricultural products are boosted for domestic and export destinations are being derived from, are high in poverty incidence.
“Fisherman and fisherfolks are the poorest sectors in Mindanao, telling us we are strong in agriculture but our kind of agriculture setup is not par with the global standards,” he added.
Montenegro emphasized that many farmlands have no processing facilities and electricity, resulting in farm outputs being collected by traders and middlemen and delivered to processing stations before being exported.
He stressed this results in traders earning the bigger part of the value-added revenue, not the farmers.
Citing the case of seaweeds in Tawi-Tawi, an island province in the Philippines located in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Montenegro said the province accounts for more than half of the country’s seaweeds, making the country the third exporter in the world.
After seaweeds are hung dry, they are put into sacks and loaded into ships to transport them to Cebu and Tacloban for processing, which they export to Korea, India, and other market destinations.
“Who earns the dollar-denominated revenue? Not the seaweed farmers, but the exporters in Cebu and Tacloban,” he said.
Montenegro said this is possibly due to a lack of electricity and water to value-add the seaweeds to the next level of product, hence the question of why up to this day farmers and fisherfolks are categorized “poor”.
He cited another example galunggong or mackerel scad in Basilan is sold at P40 per kilo, but when transported to Bicol, it is sold at P350.
This is due to the lack of electricity that can maintain a cold storage facility for them to be sold at a competitive price.
To address these problems, Montenegro said there is a need to push for harnessing electricity using renewable sources and an energy mix of fossil fuels and renewable sources of 50/50 by 2030.
Hybridization of off-grid areas and improved electrification of areas especially in the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi to enable farmers and fisherfolks to get sustainable energy.
At present, only the capital towns of these provinces enjoy 24/7 electricity: Jolo in Sulu, Isabela in Basilan, and Bongao in Tawi-Tawi, outside these towns only have 12 hours of electricity available powered by diesel which is imported subject to market volatility.
He added that integrating food, water, and energy-related projects is crucial in considering its impact on the agriculture value chain.
Montenegro reported that MINDA put up the first-ever hybrid renewable energy technology plant in Mindanao last month funded by the European Union, built in Sibutu and Sitangkai in Tawi-Tawi, to increase the value-added of seaweeds.
“This is to demonstrate that if this can be done in the most challenging, difficult part of Mindanao, then this can be done anywhere else in Mindanao, so there’s no reason why local government units and development workers cannot do this,” he said.
Montenegro was one of the speakers at the May 11 forum for the World Press Freedom Day (WPFD) celebration with the theme “A Press for the Planet: Journalism in the face of the environmental crisis.”
