THE MOUNTAINEER

Revitalizing the vegetable industry
EDISON L. BADDAL

The program being pushed by Benguet Gov. Nestor Fongwan regarding the identification of the dominant vegetable crop of each municipality in Benguet is unmistakably an ingenious strategy to revitalize the moribund vegetable industry of the province dovetailing the program with the One Town, One Product (OTOP) program of the Dept. of Trade.

Nonetheless, with the length of time that local vegetables have been heavily losing out to imported ones, a big portion of which is smuggled to the country from neighbor temperate countries, the program has been quite long in coming. Be that as it may, nothing is too late for anything if the lateness is matched and confronted with consummate passion.

It could not be exactly pinpointed when vegetables began to be smuggled to our shores, but it could be presumed to have began when the Philippines became a member of the World Trade Organization in 1995 or even earlier.

The smuggling could have been done in small scale at first so it was generally undetected. It only came late to the attention of BPI authorities and the officialdoms of Benguet and Mt. Province when it became so massive that all market outlets in Manila were saturated with imported vegetables.

On the part of the local officials, they were first alarmed when local vegetables were not being patronized in same bulk as before by regular buyers in Metro Manila. However, with smugglers operating with impunity by then, subsequent directives from agricultural secretaries banning the entry of smuggled vegetables since the discovery failed to have any tangible impact as smuggled vegetables flowed unabated to local markets.

These are originating mostly from China and Taiwan. Accordingly, imported vegetables are patronized more by traders because they fetch a lower price in the market which is almost half the price of locally produced vegetables. It is also furthered that imported vegetables look more attractive having bigger sizes and finer texture than their local counterparts.

In the process, the wanton smuggling virtually damaged the livelihood of estimated 40,000 farmers of said provinces which is tantamount to economic sabotage. Like killing the goose that lays the golden eggs, inability of local farmers to market their agricultural products results in them sliding to further impoverishment.

Inexorably, the big dip in their income, which is nothing to say of the huge reversal in their fortunes, is the main collateral damage of the indiscriminate smuggling. At this point, the claim that Benguet is the supplier of about 68 percent of the vegetable needs of the country no longer holds true as the impunity in which vegetables are smuggled into the country is virtually dragging down the local vegetable industry to its death knell.

Consequently, imported vegetables (including smuggled ones), are causing unfair competition to local vegetables even without pesticide risk analysis. This unfair competition, which is skewed in favor of imported vegetables, prompted concerned past officials sometime in 2003 to petition the tariff commission to exclude a list of vegetables grown in the region from the early harvest package under the ASEAN-China free trade agreement. Under the agreement, tariff concessions covers some vegetables being imposed with rates higher
than 15% to be reduced to 10% in 2004 up to zero in 2006.

The member countries, which include the Philippines, are supposed to benefit from the deal with increase in bilateral trade, enhanced economic efficiency, gradual lowering of trading costs and increase in investments. The vegetables being sought for exclusion pending the installation of safety nets against unfair advantage posed by imported vegetables were potatoes, tomatoes, onions, garlic, cabbages and cauliflower.

The petition was flatly denied by the tariff commission. At this juncture, it is appropriate to consider some relevant questions on the issue about the vegetable industry being on the doldrums. What could have gone wrong in the management of the vegetable industry in Benguet?

Who are supposed to blame for the sudden slide in the profitability of the vegetable industry in Benguet and Mt. Province? Were the appropriate authorities been remiss in implementing the proper regulations, much less the guidelines issued by central authorities for the proper management of the vegetable industry especially under the aegis of the GATT?

Were the farmers themselves to blame for sticking to age-old agricultural methods which are already obsolescent in the light of modern agricultural techniques which made their products not globally competitive? My bold assumption is that the vegetable industry could have been
left to fend for itself during the heydey of Benguet as the salad bowl of the Philippines.

With its semi-temperate climate suited for raising temperate vegetables, a preponderance
of the Benguet population thrived on the lucrative vegetable business, a legacy of Limahong
to Benguet folks. Conclusively, the aggressive advertisements by producers of chemical pesticides to Benguet vegetable farmers matched by unregulated use by the latter boomeranged against the profitability, and even the viability, of the vegetable industry at this time after decades of lucrative operation.

Researches and studies gave credence to cordillera vegetables being basically laced with pesticide. These findings could have caused regular outlets of local vegetables in the metropolis to shy away from Benguet vegetables and took to imported vegetables when these became available. This is aside from the fact that imported vegetables, some are smuggled at that, are considered more palatable having been disseminated as organically produced from their countries of origin.

In a workshop conducted by regional DA authorities to vegetable stakeholders in the first week of April, 2003, to consider projects and programs in a road map that is expected to turn the industry around, significant findings on the weaknesses and strengths of the local vegetable industry were uncovered.

This road map consisted of a total package of reforms, was aimed not only at sustaining the vegetable industry but making it modern and globally competitive. It was given a budget of 1.4 billion pesos by Pres. GMA with the implementation to take place in a span of five years from 2003 up to 2008.

In said workshop, the participants agreed that the following reasons contributed to the failure of the vegetable industry in the region to be globally competitive low adoption of appropriate technologies, lack of postharvest facilities, poor infrastructure, lack of irrigation aside from weak marketing system.

In contrast, the industry’s strengths were identified as the quality of the vegetable products, a semi-tropical climate suited for producing semi-temperate vegetables and the hardworking
vegetable farmers.

Against the backdrop of unmitigated vegetable smuggling and the findings of the workshop
as to the weaknesses of the vegetable industry, the participants then agreed to use the budget for a holistic approach for the industry to recover.

The support activities agreed upon ranged from credit linkage, massive infrastructure
development, production support, capability and institutional building, research, post harvest development, marketing development, soil and water conservation as well as a broad information network. Essentially, these form a part and parcel of the modern and appropriate technologies which are believed as triggers that could turn things around for the industry which is warranted as the two vegetable-producing provinces have a surplus production in potato, carrots, cauliflower and cabbage at anytime of the year.

Along this line, the DA has been relentlessly advocating organic farming technology
by the turn of the millennium. This is a paradigm shift from traditional vegetable farming technology characterized by massive pesticide use to one that uses organic fertilizers such as basal and foliar fertilizers complemented by the integrated pest management.

This also include the use of chicken manure as organic fertilizers with bio-remediation,
a unique Philippine-discovered modern farming technology. Ex Director Maslan, a chief advocate of organic farming, once enthused that “organic farming is a win-win strategy to make the vegetables in the cordillera region globally competitive.”

One wonders what happened to the 1.4 billion budget for the vegetable recovery road map that started implementation in 2003. This year is supposed to be the final year of its implementation and an improvement in terms of sustainability and global competitiveness of locally produced vegetables should be perceptible and tangible.

However, if the situation of the vegetable industry in Bauko, a beneficiary province of the road map budget, for the last five years is the gauge, the goal is gainsaid by the fact that nothing
much has been done during same period as far as turnaround of the industry around is concerned.

This is manifested by the fact many vegetable farmers are still bellyaching about substantial losses and unfair competition still posed by imported vegetables. Hence, a lot is still to be done to make the industry profitable and sustainable aside from recovering its uncontested viability. Fongwan’s strategy, if pursued vigorously, might yet be among the sparks that for a massive turnaround for the industry to be realized.