Press Release
April 23, 2008

Angara outlines legislative action to improve agri sector

In light of the rising prices of rice, Senator Edgardo Angara pushes for three legislative actions that would ensure agricultural productivity in the long-term and prevent food and rice shortages in the future.

The three key legislative measures are: (1) prioritizing amendment to the Agri-Agra law, (2) revisiting the implementation of the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act, and (3) studying the extension of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

Angara presented these suggestions during Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) yesterday.

Agri-agra law

"First, we should prioritize amending the Agri-Agra law, so that we can provide better access to credit to our small farmers," said Angara.

"The current set-up is a farce, as alternative compliances to the law crowd out lending to small farmers," pointed out Angara.

The Agri-agra law requires banks to earmark 25 percent of their loanable funds to agriculture and agrarian reform-related projects, but alternative compliance to the law has been introduced through the years. These include buying Economic Recovery through Agricultural Productivity bonds and Local Government Unit bonds.

AFMA

"Second, the implementation of the AFMA should be revisited. Current noncompliance to AFMA funding has hampered the implementation of AFMA to its full potential," Angara said.

"Designed to provide a comprehensive policy for the agriculture sector, the AFMA has been paralyzed by lack of financing. Government has failed to comply with the legislated funding for AFMA. From 1999 to 2008[1], a total of Php133.76 billion has been programmed under the AFMA, but had the AFMA budgetary provision been followed en toto, this should have been Php173 billion," Angara said.

"That means Php39.24 billion (or 29%) has been appropriated through AFMA legislation, but not used to fund more irrigation, post-harvest facilities, and cutting edge researches to agriculture."

CARP

"Lastly, we need to study the extension of the CARP as it ends in June. Should we decide to extend the program again, we've got to have empirical basis for it," said Angara.

"I have no contention with agrarian reform. Land ownership is crucial to enhancing the productivity of our farmers. But how will land ownership be effective in doing this? That's why we should reexamine how agrarian reform in the country is implemented," said Angara.

Angara underscored the historic trend of 70-30 budget ratio between Land Acquisition and Distribution, and Program Beneficiaries Development, asserting that the support given to CARP beneficiaries is minimal.

"This is the primary reason why farmers forfeit the land distributed to them. We may claim to have distributed 8,800,000 hectares of land to people, but it's futile if they do not have the capacity to make it sustainable and to make that farm a source of livelihood because of inadequate support."

A former Secretary of Agriculture, Angara currently chairs the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Food, and the Congressional Oversight Committee on Fisheries and Agriculture Modernization (COCOFAM).

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