Usurers, rice cartel, not farmers to benefit from high farmgate prices--KMP

Davao City --- How can farmers benefit from simple farmgate prices when they do not own the land they till and they continue to suffer from high land rent? This was the statement made by Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas - Southern Mindanao Region (KMP-SMR) belying claims of the National Food Authority that “high” farmgate prices will benefit the farmers .


“The NFA can not deny the fact that it is the usurers and middle merchants who benefit most from the high farmgate prices because farmers still bear the burden of high interest rates,” said Pedro Arnado, Chairperson of KMP-SMR.


He adds, “Farmgate prices are not indicative of the alleviation of the plight of Filipino farmers because we suffer from still many other forms of exploitation --- landlessness, unjust land rents, high amortization rates even for CARP beneficiaries, lack of government subsidy and support in agricultural services. Even the NFA continues to do farmers disservice by buying only 1 – 2% of crops that farmers produce, while it engages in massive rice importation.”


Arnado cited a case in Boston, Davao Oriental wherein farmers are made to pay more than 100% interest for loans they make. 50% of their harvests are yielded to the land owners as interest while they are still obliged to pay for the principal loan. Interests pile up as long as they cannot pay the principal loan. In the same area, a kilo of copra which is normally pegged at P 50.00 based on market price, are bought by the usurer at P 35.00.


KMP also lambasted reports of looming rice crisis projected by the Department of Agriculture.


“The NFA has an ample supply of rice, however, these are sold at high prices that the poor cannot afford. Proof to this is the tons of NFA rice that the administration of former President Arroyo left to rot in NFA warehouses. This showed that the rice crisis during Arroyo’s time was artificial, created to justify pricey rice importations-- a source of megakickbacks,” said Arnado.


Arnado said the Philippine agricultural system is bound to suffer from further decline as the government continues to ignore implementing genuine agrarian reform.


“We must empower the farmers by giving them free access to lands that they can till. We must liberate them from the exploitative land lords, usurers and rice cartels. We urge the P-Noy government to stop the massive exploitation of farmers, lest we face the eventual death of the agricultural sector,” said Arnado.


KMP stressed that mechanization is also an important factor in good rice production.


“We must as well mechanize our method of farming in order to increase their productivity so that we can do away with importing rice. While the government render our national budget to dole outs and mendicancy schemes through the Conditional Cash Transfer, why can’t it invest in providing farm inputs, irrigation systems and machines to increase rice production?” said Arnado.


KMP recently launched a signature campaign promoting the enactment of the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill (GARB) or HB 374 which is still pending in the lower house of the House of Representatives to date.