Let us get this straight from the outset. By using the term “high” I am not referring to being high on drugs. This has nothing to do with the infamous “tokhang”. I am obviously employing a play on words. But in this issue I will use the term “high” in a positive sense.
On many occasions in my past professional work in the exciting field of development, I have ventured the view that this region needs to veer away from, but not neglecting it, the dominance of rice and coconut production as priorities and primary products in the field of agriculture.
What should it do? Diversify, modernize, and concentrate on high-value commercial crops. So much government funds are being poured into rice and coconut production and yet farmers’ income remains embarassingly low.
When the Department of Agriculture in Eastern Visayas presented its proposed 2026 budget to the Regional Development Council, I noticed that only a small portion of its budget is going into high-value commercial crops.
I made a comment on this then because I estimated that less than ten per cent of their budget will go into these high-value crops. I requested that this deficiency should be remedied in the next budget cycle.
There is so much publicity on rice and corn, particularly on reaching the target of twenty pesos per kilo of milled rice that other crops that could add income to farmers are placed at the background.
The point here is that this department and the agricultural offices of local govenment units must increase their budget and scope of its programs to support high value commercial crops.
I have already seen proposals on cacao and jackfruit programs located in different provinces of this region. (Here I will concentrate on cacao and go into jackfruit production in a future column). All of these will be funded from the coco levy. This implies government subsidy on the cutivation of these crops; a laudable act. But the question is: will these projects be enough to make a major improvement in cacao production. Or will this merely be a feeble attempt that will fizzle out in the months ahead after all the million pesos funding per association is consumed.
Many strategies have to be put in place and made functional in order to promote the production of cacao.
Foremost of this is marketing. There are many stories about farmers not earning much from the sale of this crop.
The beauty of inter-cropping cacao trees in coconut lands comes into the picture. Theoretically, inter-cropping will make each hectare of coconut land more productive. It will add pesos into the pockets of farmers.
It has been a trategy for decades but has not been pervasive in this region. That is really puzzling.
Yesterday, I saw on Youtube the large-scale import of cacao into the US to be made into chocolates. A major portion of these sacks and sacks of cocoa came from African countries.
We know that cacao thrives in the Philippines. We know that “ tablea “ is sold and patronized in many local markets. Then, why is cacao not extensively propagated here?
If we have the technology of efficient production coupled with favorable soil and rainfall conditions, then there must be a marketing problem that is the main cause why cacao production has not blossomed.
To solve this, the export market should be tapped so that cacao and products that use cacao can be sold in foreign markets thereby multiplying farm incomes significantly.
This marketing issue is a glaring weakness in the approach of government agencies engaged in high-value commercial crops.
But the Achilles heel of the flow is selling all the cacao to extensive markets at favorable prices that enable the farmer to get a decent profit.
Of course, culture, customs and traditional behaviour come into play.
Many farmers just do not like to do more farming beyond planting rice and waiting for the coconuts to fall. However, if the income is good, this will be a big attraction that will lead to substantial increases in farm income. This is crucial in reducing poverty in this region.
There is a lot of value in engaging in high-value commercial crop production especially if processing is also encouraged.
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