INSTEAD of commiserating with the poor vegetable farmers of Batanes and Benguet for their inability to sell their farm produce, Department of Agriculture (DA) senior undersecretary Domingo Panganiban called them out for "not knowing when to plant."
Panganiban said in a radio interview that the province of Batanes has 25 metric tons of garlic which were unsold because the farmers "keep on planting without considering the market for their products."
"The problem with the farmers is they keep on planting but without considering the situation just like the garlic in Batanes. They keep on planting garlic as a regular crop, but they do not have a market for their products," Panganiban said.
Batanes Provincial Agriculture Officer Cesar Justallero earlier reported that only 25 metric tons of the 50 metric tons of garlic harvest in the province were sold and the remaining half remains in warehouses. Justallero added that the stocks have deteriorated since it's been months after the harvest.
What Panganiban can promise is that "the government is now finding ways to address the problem and to have a value chain from Batanes to Ilocos Norte." He said that boats transporting goods from Batanes to Laoag City, Ilocos Norte are limited.
"More often the boats are stuck in the middle of the ocean during typhoons. We are now looking at how the market produce can be stored in Batanes and will be transported from their place to Ilocos Norte," Panganiban said. The garlic cannot be transported directly to Manila because of the transportation cost.
Because of his comments, Panganiban was criticized by the Solidarity of Peasants Against Exploitation (STOP EXPLOITATION) Chair Antonino Pugyao who said the undersecretary is insensitive. Pugyao said, "Instead of getting help, what the farmers are getting is [an] insult from the Department of Agriculture."
"Undersecretary Panganiban forgets that he is working for the DA and not as spokesperson of importers," Pugyao added. Pugyao said that the DA should instead look into the real problem in the local market, stressing that the main issue at hand is the standing policy of the government on the massive importation of crops.
When we talk about the value chain in agriculture, which President Bongbong Marcos is very much fixated on, we will have to consider that this involves several agencies, such as the DTI, the DPWH, the DOTr and the police, aside from the Department of Agriculture.
The Marcos administration will have a lot of work to do to improve the value chain.