! ! ! PLEASE HELP OUR FILIPINO FARMERS ! ! !

Over the years, Filipino farmers continue to remain poor despite the fertile lands and abundant supply of fresh water in the Philippines. But why? There are some factors that causes this problem such as how our farmer’s income is low on the average, how there are unorganized farmers which leads to turmoil, and many other reasons.

According to Cai Ordinario who wrote about “Farmers’ daily wages less than P200—PSA”, Filipino farmers’ daily wages are only a third of the daily wage of workers in the National Capital Region (NCR), according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). In the Agricultural Indicators System Report, the PSA said in exchange for back-breaking work, a farmer received only an average of P170.34 per day in 2013. The daily minimum wages received by workers in Metro Manila averaged P429 to P466, according to the National Wages and Productivity Commission. “The value of worker’s compensation for their labor is measured through the wages and salary received by the workers,” the PSA said. “It grew by a yearly average of 4.1 percent over the period 2009 to 2013.”

The PSA said higher salary and wages were received by those engaged in fishing activities amounting to P189.48 per day. Their wage gain over the five-year period averaged 2.2 percent per year. Those involved in agriculture, hunting and forestry were paid P169.22 per day in 2013. It posted wage increase of 4.3 percent annually. The PSA said employment in agriculture totaled 11.84 million persons in 2013.

The number contracted by 0.4 percent per year. The sector’s share in total employment went down to 31 percent in 2013 by an average of 2.5 percent annually. Western Visayas accounted for the biggest agricultural employment in 2013 at 1.11 million persons. It recorded a yearly reduction averaging 1 percent. Employment in agriculture ranging from 0.81 million to 0.88 million persons were reported in many regions, such as Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Bicol Region, Central and Eastern Visayas, Soccsksargen and Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

NCR posted the least number of employed persons in agriculture at 29,000 and it was going down by 0.5 percent per year. Downtrends were similarly noted in most regions. The biggest employment growths at 1.6 percent to 1.7 percent were observed in Central Luzon and Eastern Visayas.

And because there are millions of small farmers in the country, the government, in particular the Department of Agriculture (DA), whose headquarters is located in Metro Manila, cannot reach out to all of them. It is imperative that farmers be organized into cooperatives or associations to facilitate delivery of assistance from the government. Unfortunately, the history of cooperatives in the country is one replete with failures, where farmers’ cooperatives in the country are far from the beacon of success. The reasons are three-fold: the lack of accountability among farmer cooperative leaders; cooperatives and farmers’ associations are formed mainly to access government dole-outs; and the government agency (e.g., CDA), which has oversight responsibility on cooperatives, is oriented towards regulations of cooperatives rather than bestowing them with an agribusiness perspective.

! ! ! SUPPORT OUR FELLOW FARMERS, SIGN THE PETITION ! ! !