By ANGELO GUTIERREZabs-cbnNEWS.com President Arroyo on Friday committed at least 40 billion pesos for a government "masterplan" which seeks to prevent the emerging world food crisis from severely affecting the country. "Our program, for easy recall, will be called FIELDS," Mrs. Arroyo said as s

By ANGELO GUTIERREZ
abs-cbnNEWS.com

President Arroyo on Friday committed at least 40 billion pesos for a government "masterplan" which seeks to prevent the emerging world food crisis from severely affecting the country.

"Our program, for easy recall, will be called FIELDS," Mrs. Arroyo said as she outlined the fund allotments for agriculture, based on the Department of Agriculture's (DA) list of recommendations that was drafted after a 40-day consultation meeting with farmers and agriculture leaders nationwide.

FIELDS stands for fertilizer, irrigation and infrastructure, extension and education, loans, dryers and post-harvest facilities, and seeds and other genetic materials.

Mrs. Arroyo made the announcement before agriculture stakeholders and public officials during the National Food Summit held at Fontana resort hotel in Clark, Pampanga.

Funds for FIELDS

Mrs. Arroyo commited P500 million for organic fertilizer, which she said must replace oil-based fertilizer, which is becoming increasingly unaffordable in the international market.

The President also promised to allot P6 million for yearly rehabilitation of irrigation systems starting 2008, and another P6 billion for infrastructure, including farm-to-market roads, roll on-roll off ferry ports, and air transportation for agricultural cargo.

Another P2 billion fund allocation was promised for agriculture research and development, including training for farmers and fisherfolks.

She also asked the Department of Science and Technology to allot funds for agriculture research from its P3 billion budget for the year.

For loans, Mrs. Arroyo said she has ordered government financial institutions, including the Land Bank of the Philippines, to release P15 billion for agricultural credit.

She said the amount excludes the P5 billion credit fund that has been made available solely for rice farmers.

Mrs. Arroyo said the government will also spend P2 billion for dryers and another $300 million (P12.5 billion) from the Asian Development Bank for post-harvest facilities nationwide.

For seeds, she said P8 billion will be spent for the development of high-yielding hybrid rice from certified rice.

DA Secretary Arthur Yap said the amounts alloted will be spent by the government in the remaining years of Mrs. Arroyo's presidency.

Agriculture Ombudsman

Arroyo said that with reports of corruption in the agriculture sector, she would have to appoint a Deputy Ombudsman for agriculture.

"Since farm spending may now be bigger, a deputy Ombudsman may be needed in agriculture," she said.

An Ombudsman in agriculture would initiate transparency and "ensure that money is spent wisely."

Mrs. Arroyo said in her speech that the government has "a lot of cleaning up to do" as she personally discovered that rice traders, particularly accredited distributors of the National Food Authority (NFA), have been "violating the terms and conditions of their accreditation."

Mrs. Arroyo said she had ordered the NFA to cancel all accreditations and authorizations issued to its dealers.

"We have asked them to apply all over again for accreditation," she said.

Balanced budget

Despite higher public expenditures in agriculture, Mrs. Arroyo said she has asked Finance Secretary Margarito Teves and Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya to make sure the government will have "a balanced budget" starting this year.

"Nonoy [Andaya] and Gary [Teves] will try to fit all of these particulars into our budget target for this year and the years to come," she said.

Arroyo said a balanced budget is "99 percent doable."

She said her economic team will "plan hard" to make sure her administration’s "agribusiness agenda" will be fulfilled when her term ends in 2010.

Preparing since Christmas

In his opening speech, Yap said that while he and other Cabinet members were on a Christmas break, Mrs. Arroyo summoned them to a meeting on December 27.

"The President has anticipated the impacts of this situation on our nation," Yap said.

He said that as early as the first week of January, Mrs. Arroyo ordered her to convene the National Food Summit.

He said he had spent the last 40 days going around rice producing provinces to get recommendations that will be presented to Mrs. Arroyo.

Mrs. Arroyo’s administration formed "FIELDS" based on these recommendations.

CARP extension not mentioned

However, there was no mention of the extension of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) in the FIELDS masterplan.

In the People’s Food Summit at the University of the Philippines on Tuesday, civil society groups, including Catholic church leaders, proposed the extension of CARP.

Twenty-nine bishops, led by Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo and Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Rosales, asked Congress to urgently pass a law that will extend CARP.

"We are writing to manifest our appeal to the honorable members of Congress, the urgency of passing a bill to extend CARP and institute progressive reforms that would truly benefit our poor farmers who remain landless...," the CBCP said in a 3-page letter sent to Rep. Elias Bulut, chairman of the House Committee on Agrarian Reform last April 1.

"After twenty years, 1.3 million hectares of CARPable lands remain undistributed, consisting mainly of large haciendas of those who have been resisting CARP from its inception," the bishops said.

The bishops said giving farmers their own land to till will help the alleviation of poverty, particularly in the countrysides.

They said the passage of a reformed CARP should "be placed at the center of our country's agricultural development, transformation and competitiveness."

Another major recommendation made during the People’s Food Summit was the scrapping of the land conversion law, which has become an obstacle to the improvement of domestic rice production.

An ABS-CBN News Channel report, quoting the Philippine Rice Institute, said 9,000 hectares of rice lands are being converted for other uses every year since 2002.

The report said 9,000 hectares is equal to 50,000 tons of palay or 32,000 tons of milled rice.

Agri growth momentum

Yap, however, said that despite "unprecedented conditions, the agriculture sector is on a momentum of growth."

"The average growth has been robust and sustained at just a shade below 4 percent," he said.

Last year, he said the the government recorded "the second highest growth in the last eight years at 5 percent."

He said rice production has been increasing with 16.24 million metric tons of rice produced in 2007.

The agriculture department said domestic rice production has been increasing 2 percent per year.