LINGAYEN—Farmers are the key to food security, but they could be a vanishing class.

Department of Agriculture (DA) Region 3’s technical director, Chris Bautista, said the current generation of farmers in northern Luzon are on average already in their 50s and added that there is visibly a waning interest in the sector among the younger generation.

“In four to five years’ time, they would already be old so who will do their farm work job?” said Bautista in an interview with local newsmen during the opening program of the Makina Saka Agri-Machinery Road Show last September 30 at the Provincial Training and Development Center here.

Proof of this, he said, is the low number of enrollees in state colleges and universities offering agriculture courses.

“Who will also take our place? Who will conduct research?” he asked.

Bautista said the young could be discouraged going into farming because of the low income from harvests over the past years but the picture could change, however, he said if productivity is improved through the adoption of modern farm equipment, which farmers can avail of with subsidy from the DA.

In Region 3 where farm machineries are used, a rice harvest averages five tons per hectare, which means a gross income of P85,000 at P17/kilo less P35,000 cost of production,

“You will be earning P50,000 in four months….so it really depends on productivity,” Bautista illustrated. “If you are farm-mechanized, losses are minimized cost of production is lowered but production is maximized,” he added.

DA Secretary Proceso Alcala, who was present during the show’s opening, said the country is way behind most of its neighbors on the use of modern farm equipment.

“If we want to secure our food needs, we have to shift to modern farm technologies,” he added.

Meanwhile, DA Undersecretary Dante Delima, underscored that machineries will not replace the farmers but will only lighten their loads and increase productivity. 
 
At present, the capacity of farm mechanization and post harvest facilities is 2.31 horsepower per hectare and the DA targets a 3 horsepower per hectare capacity by 2016. 
Alcala further disclosed that the DA’s goal is no longer self-sufficiency in rice but import substitution or to strengthen exportation.

MAKINA SAKA PROGRAM

At the Makina Saka roadshow, with about 2,000 farmers from regions 1-5 and the Cordillera Administrative Region in attendance, some 100 farm machineries and products of 80 companies from all over the Philippines were exhibited.

“The best to way help the farmers in the Philippines is to literally uproot them from the soil,” said Provincial Administrator Rafael Baraan, speaking for Governor Amado Espino Jr.

Baraan explained that while perseverance and hard work are important to farming, appropriate equipment and machinery will help farmers become more efficient and earn more profit.

Under the DA’s Agricultural Mechanization Development Program, farmers can avail of machineries with 85% of the total cost to be subsidized by the government, leaving only 15% for the recipients to pay.

Registered associations such as irrigators associations and cooperatives will be given priority over individual farmers for the availment of the machineries.–Eva Visperas and Johanne R. Macob

Back to Homepage

Share your Comments or Reactions

comments

Powered by Facebook Comments