THE recent revamp placing the National Food Authority (NFA), the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA), and the Fertilizer and Pesticides Authority (FPA) under the Department of Agriculture (DA) makes good sense, management-wise.
These are all agriculture-related agencies that should be working closely with the DA, coordinating their plans and activities with it.
For one reason or another, these Authorities were placed under the Office of the President during the administration of President Benigno S. Aquino III. They were headed by officials close to the president. But they carried on with little or no coordination with the Department of Agriculture, the mother Cabinet department in charge of over-all agricultural production in the country.
Last month, the NFA’s differences with the DA broke out into the open as the NFA management announced that its rice stocks imported from Thailand and Vietnam were down to less than a day’s supply, stressing the need for immediate importation. NFA rice is sold at lower prices than commercial rice produced in Philippine farms, for the benefit of the poorer sector in the country. The Department Agriculture called on the NFA to buy some of its needs from Philippine farmers instead of relying on imports.
President Duterte immediately authorized some importation because of the emergency. But he also removed Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco Jr. as NFA chairman and placed the NFA under the DA, together with the PCA and the FPA.
Secretary Evasco stressed there was no malfeasance – no irregularity – involved in the move. It was a presidential decision to streamline and coordinate the operations of the various agricultural offices.
The reorganization may also indicate a shift towards Secretary Piñol’s position that Philippine agriculture has now progressed to a point where it can supply most of the country’s rice needs. The NFA has long been given a big budget with which its officials had negotiated with rice producers and government officials in Thailand and Vietnam. Piñol said the NFA should buy more of its emergency rice stocks from Philippine farmers.
The recent revamp effected by President Duterte may signal a change in the government rice policy towards greater support for Philippine farmers. The country posted its highest rice harvest at 19.28 million metric tons last year and this will further increase by 600,000 tons this year, Secretary Piñol said. By next year, he said, Filipino farmers will be supplying up to 96 percent of the country’s total rice requirement.
With the NFA under the DA, there should now be greater coordination in the country’s total rice program. There will still be importations in case of emergencies caused by drought or floods or typhoons, but the overall direction should be towards supporting our farmers with better rice varieties, farm mechanization, free irrigation, adequate financing, assistance in marketing. At the rate we are going, we may yet, like Thailand and Vietnam, be a rice exporter some day.
