World Bank slammed for urging shift in local agriculture

The environmental nongovernment organization Interface Development Inteventions, Inc. (Idis) has slammed a World Bank recommendation for the Philippines to devote its budget for agriculture on export-oriented crops.

Lia Jasmin Esquillo, executive director of Idis, said that World Bank wanted the millions of farmers in the country to get stuck to the pit of hunger and poverty with this kind of recommendation.

“The idea that Filipino farmers must plant exportable crops has always been proven as destructive to the economic backbone of the country which is agriculture and threatens the capacity of the farmers to conduct their activities sustainably—meaning really beneficial to them and friendly to the environment,” Esquillo said.

“Let us be reminded that only the capitalists and their cohorts were able to benefit when rice, corn, coconut and other indigenous crop farmers shifted to planting pineapples, Cavendish bananas, and crops that are export oriented…Let us not be deceived by these sugar coated analysis because we have the best weapon to counter them and that’s experience,” Esquillo added.

This came when Maryse Gautier, country director of World Bank for the Philippines, said that the rest of the developing world, the farming sector of the Philippines, which accounts to 40 percent of the country’s workforce, must be placed at the center of the development agenda.

Gautier said that the way to increase the benefits of agricultural public investments in the Philippines “would be to improve the composition of expenditure, without necessarily increasing its level.

"The country would be able to seize new opportunities presented by the global markets by shifting expenditures towards supporting dynamic, high-value added products with export potential.

This, she said, will help increase incomes from agriculture, where “more than 40
percent of the Philippine labor force is employed, but which (now)
contributes only about 14 percent of national output."

But Esquillo said that instead of focusing on crops with export potentials, the Philippine government must first and foremost ensure food self sufficiency and give its full support and assistant to farmers who continue to plant corn, rice and other crops that assure the country’s food security. She added that even the United Nations have recognized the potential of organic agriculture to remedy the global problem of hunger, hence the support must be poured on local organic agriculture movements.

“It is appalling to hear someone encourage Filipinos to supply food to other countries when many Filipinos are suffering from hunger and poverty because of lack of food. While we recognize the potential of the country to host agricultural farms, these farms must foremost serve the interest of the Filipino people and not other any other country’s interest,” Esquillo said.

Esquillo said that right now, thousands of lands in the countryside have been given up to plantations that generally threaten the supply of food for local consumption.

She said that farmers who have been swayed into converting their farms into plantations have already been experiencing the ugliness of the trade with their debts piling up, making recovery almost impossible to reach.

“We have already seen how producing food for other countries like the United States and Japan have made our local farmers suffer almost irrevocable damages…let us put an end to this kind of scheme that only impairs the Filipinos capacity to agricultural self-reliance,” Esquillo said.

Advocates warn about food with killing-me-softly effects

Safe food advocates have warned the public about buying vegetables, fruits and other food products in the market that leave the body with a killing-me-softly effect.

The warning came during a gathering of organic producers and environmentalists here Tuesday, in time for the global celebration of the World Food Day.

Betsy Ruizo-Gamela, executive director of the Don Bosco Foundation for Sustainable Development, said that the public markets around are huge repositories of food products, both raw and processed, that are laced with synthetic chemicals.

“We have to be very careful because the vegetables and fruits that we find in the market might have been grown with chemicals that are still present no matter how we wash them well. Parents must ensure that the food they feed their children is not fortified with these deadly chemicals or they might also be killing their children gradually,” Gamela said.

“Generally, what the public is eating now are non-safe foods because they are chemical-based,” added Gamela who also stressed that the public must be made aware of how the food that they bring home are produced and processed

She then challenged the Department of Agriculture and other concerned agencies to conduct strict monitoring on the extent of usage of chemicals by farmers, both large-scale and small-scale, and conduct periodic testing of the crops being brought to the market.

The call was also directed at consumer groups and the public themselves. Asked how to spot a chemically-enhanced vegetable and fruit, Gamela said: “If the crop looks very good and ‘sexy’, then you have to suspect that was peppered with chemicals because, naturally, it was spared from insects and pests.”

Betty More, another woman advocate for sustainable agriculture and environmental protection, said that based on their experience at the Kababayen-an Alang sa Teknolohiya nga Haum sa Kinaiyahan ug Kauswagan (Katakus) or Empowering Women Through Appropriate Technology in Harmony with the Environment, even backyard vegetable growers are aware that the vegetables they produce are not healthy and safe for consumption.

“The farmers that we’ve worked with said they do not eat the crops they get from the gardens with chemicals. These farmers have two separate gardens and the one without chemicals is the one that they get their food from…the other is where they get the crops that they sell to the market,” said More, executive director of Katakus.

While hitting the government’s prioritization of the mononculture form of agriculture like banana and pineappale plantation that is considered as the number one threat on sustainable agriculture, the groups also criticized policy of the government on genetically engineered crops.

Dr. Emerlito Boromeo, consultant of Greenpeace International and Third World Network, said that the government must reconsider its policy in the face of waves and unrelenting questions about its safety on people and the environment.

“I cannot understand the obsession of the government on genetically modified crops…this obsession will further increase our agricultural dependence on transnational agricultural companies. This obsession will only burry the farmers down into poverty instead of being alleviated from it,” Boromeo said.

Safe food forum set on World Food Day

Civil society groups in Mindanao will conduct a one-day forum-workshop Tuesday next week (Oct. 16) here in time for the global celebration of the World Food Day and organizers are highlighting the natural way of farming as the answer to the problems confronting food security and healthy environment.

To be conducted at the compound of the Davao Medical School Foundation, Inc. (DMSF) in Bajada, the activity is themed “Celebrating Organic Agriculture in Mindanao : Seizing Opportunities, Overcoming Challenges.”

Lia Jasmin Esquillo, forum co-convener, said that the activity hopesto raise the awareness of the civil society organizations, church organizations, local government units and agencies, and the academe on the status and threats of organic agriculture in Mindanao.

Esquillo, who is also the executive director of the environmental nongovernment organizations Interface Development Interventions, Inc. (Idis), said that organic agriculture holds great potentials both for the practicing farmers and the public who patronize safe food and health environment.

Right now, Esquillo said, organic farmers have been countering the chemical-dependent and monoculture farms with commercial-scale production of organic rice and other food crops which are accessible to the growing market.

“We also hope to be part in the implementation of government programs in organic agriculture and at the same time, strengthening the partnership of people’s organizations and nongovernment organizations involved in community-based organic agriculture in Mindanao ,” Esquillo said.

Participating in the forum are the biodynamic agriculture primemover Don Bosco Foundation for Sustainable Development (Don Bosco), Justice and Peace of the Diocese of Marbel, Idis, Kababayen-an Alang sa Teknolohiya nga Haum sa Kinaiyahan ug Kauswagan (Empowering Women Through Appropriate Technology in Harmony with the Environment) or Katakus, Kinaiyahan Foundation (KFI), Masipag-Mindanao, Mindanao Farmworkers Development Center (MFDC), Third World Network, Upliftment of the Moral, Economic, Technological, Socio-spiritual Aspirations of Persons or Metsa Foundation, Holy Cross of Davao College (HCDC), Sustainable Integrated Area Development Initiatives in Mindanao-Convergenc e of Asset Reform and Regional Development (Simcarrd).

Dr. Emerlito Boromeo, consultant of the Third World Network, will be coming over from Manila to discuss the threats on organic agriculture, particularly on the current developments on the genetically modified food crops in the country.

Environmentalists to celebrate with “lumad” in Tipolog

Environmentalists are yet again scaling up Mt. Tipolog , known as the country’s lost volcano found in Barangay Tawan-Tawan, Baguio District, as their way of celebrating the generosity of the mountain to the residents of the area especially to the lumad (indigenous peoples).

This is in time for the celebration of October as the Indigenous People’s Month.

Jumar Bolo, senior organizer of the group Kinaiyahan Amomahon, Ubanan ug Bantayan (Kauban), said their climb on October 5-7 is hoped to generate more awareness of the importance of Mt. Tipolog as the primary source of livelihood of the lumad while at the same time pushing for its protecting against aggressive forms of developments.

Mt. Tipolog is identified as a high groundwater recharge area by Mines and Geosciences Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). It is a major contributor to the Dumoy aquifers and is part of the headwater for the Panigan-Tamugan River , Davao ’s future source of drinking water.

With an elevation of 1,340 meter (4,396 feet) above sea level, Mt. Tipolog is roughly one-third the height of Mt. Apo , the country’s highest mountain. Mt. Tipolog , however, is a lot older than Mt. Apo according to the DENR.

“The abundance of Mt. Tipolog has been helping the lumad in terms of livelihood and agriculture and knowing this, the people there are aware that the mountain must be protected against intrusions that will only mean destruction on the natural landscape and the resources that feed them,” Bolo said.

“It is important for the public to know about this especially with the looming entry of certain developments that will only in the end cause the destruction of the mountain,” Bolo said.

He was referring to reports about the supposed plan of a local businesswoman to apply for a community integrated forest management agreement (CIFMA) for a portion of Mt. Tipolog . This is in the face of the pending application of the lumad tillers of the area for a community-based forest management agreement (CBFMA).

Bolo said the situation of the lumad in Mindanao today could very well tell of their experience as groups of people abused and oppressed in the past.

“Our lumad brothers and sisters are now suffering because of the greediness of some people over the wealth of the mountains and the forests. We know how the lumad were dislocated from their ancestral lands because of developments that only benefited a few people,” Bolo said.

Past climbs in Mt. Tipolog exposed environmentalists to the traces of intensive logging operations in the area as evidenced by bald slopes and large logging roads.

“As people living in the lowlands, we believe and fully support the efforts of the lumad living at the foot of Mt. Tipolog to develop the area according to their culture and tradition. We will climb Tipolog as a way of protesting against efforts of few people to milk money from the environment while the lumad are left out in poverty,” Bolo said.
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