oxfam weathering the crises, feeding the future

8/3/2019 OXFAM Weathering the Crises, Feeding the Future

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www.oxfam.org/grow

Philippine Food Justice Report

Weathering the Crises,Feeding the future


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Oxfam Grow campaign:

national campaign reports

This report was written by Jeanne Frances Illo and DanteDalabajan. Oxfam acknowledges the contributions of KalayaanConstantino, John Magrath, Marie Nuez, Felipe Ramiro, RizaBernabe, Shalimar Vitan, Jodie Thorpe, Glenn Maboloc andKelly Gilbride for the completion of this report. It was developedwith inputs from Oxfam partners in the Philippines. It is one of aseries of reports written to inform public debate and to contributeto Oxfams Grow campaign. For more information, or to commenton this report, email Kalayaan Constantino .

www.oxfam.org/grow

Oxfam International September 2011

This publication is copyrighted but text may be used free ofcharge for the purposes of advocacy, campaigning, education,

and research, provided that the source is acknowledged in full.The copyright holder requests that all such use be registeredwith them for impact assessment purposes. For copying in anyother circumstances, or for re-use in other publications, or fortranslation or adaptation, permission must be secured and a feemay be charged. E-mail [email protected]. Published byOxfam GB for Oxfam International under ISBN 978-1-84814-908-3 in July, 2011. Oxfam GB, Oxfam House, John Smith Drive,Cowley, Oxford, OX4 2JY, UK.

Jeanne Frances I. Illo is an economist and womens studies

scholar. Until she left in 2005, she directed the Womens StudiesProgram of the Institute of Philippine Culture, Ateneo de ManilaUniversity for decades. She is presently a Research Associateof the Women and Gender Institute of Miriam College. Shealso serves as gender adviser of the Canadian InternationalDevelopment Agency and the Australian Agency for InternationalDevelopment.

Dante Dalabajan is the policy and research ofcer of thePhilippines Economic Justice program of Oxfam. He has 15years of experience in public policy research, and advocacy andcampaigns.


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Philippine Food Justice Report

Weathering the Crises,

Feeding the future


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ContentsCrises

A corroded food chain

Decreasing investments in agricultureIncreasing dependence on imports for food

Graft and corruption

The climate crisis

Addressing equity, sustainable production and building resilience

Equity challenge

The state of food insecurity

Jobless growth

Income gap keeps food out of reach

Feast and famine

How do people cope with hunger?

Women in agriculture struggling against the odds

Ageing farmers, deserted farms

Sustainable production challenge

Infertile land, degraded resources

Collapsing sh stocks

Defective land distribution

Landgrabs

The resilience challenge

The global pressures

Rising temperature and its impacts

Chaos in climate nancing

Rising to the Challenge: A bountiful future is possible

Harvesting the low hanging fruits

Eliminating wastage and losses

Agriculture support systems

The need for a responsible private sector

Safe bets: Smallholder agriculture and sheries

An enlightened consumer movement

The dividends of peace in MindanaoThe time for change is now: what must be done

Notes

Images

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A little girl gleans shells on the island of Mahaba, Surigao del Sur, to augment the family income. On average, the poorest Filipino households live on lessthan a dollar a day, 60% of which is spent on food. (Photo: Veejay Villafranca)

CrisesThirty million people living on less than a dollar a day with 60% of their incomespent on food. Surging rice and oil prices pushing 2 million more intopoverty. 1 Meantime, the government scrambles to cobble together a bailout

package to stave off the economic fallout of a deepening crisis.2 These were thesnapshots of the Philippines at the height of the food price crisis in 2008imagesthat are coming back to haunt us as global food prices soar to another historicpeak.

Global ood prices are now at dangerous levels andit is also clear that recent ood price rises are causing

pain and suering or poor people around the globe.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick ahead of the 18 February 2011meeting of the G-20 in Paris

We mined our way to growthWe burned our way to prosperity.We believed in consumption without consequences. Tose days aregoneClimate change is also showing us that the old model is morethan obsolete. It has rendered it extremely dangerous. Over time, that

model is a recipe or national disaster. It is a global suicide pact.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon in a speech at the World Economic Forum inDavos, Switzerland, 28 January 2011


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At the height of the food price crisis in 2008, thePhilippines was among the countries with severelocalized food insecurity requiring externalassistance in food.3 A series of severe weather-related events occurred in 2009 with the total damageto the economy exceeding 100 bn pesosmore thantwice the amount allocated for agriculture that year.Rice imports reached an all-time high of 2.45 million

metric tons in 2010, making the Philippines thebiggest rice importing country in the world that year.4

There are 94 million Filipinos todayup by 4 millionsince 2008. The population is expected to growby about 2 million each year from here on.5 Thedomestic food chainfrom farm to dining tableisunder great pressure. The chain has become weak,corroded by years of neglect and corruption. Unlessrepaired, it will soon reach the breaking point.

More threats loom in the horizon. Conict in theMiddle East and North Africa reverberates in the

Philippines in the form of oil price hikes, pushingcommodity prices upwards. Climate change-relatedevents in 2010, which devastated farms in majorfood-producing countries such as Russia, Australiaand China, have pulled global stocks to all-time lows.There is ever less foodstuff for export as countriesmove to secure domestic demand while the littlesurplus that is left goes to the highest bidder. Noneof these is without precedent. Thailand, Vietnamand India, which control 60% of global rice trading,restricted their exports to protect their own domesticsupplies during the 2008 food price crisis.6

Yet a bright and bountiful future for the Philippinesis still possible if all of us can come together for acommon cause. This too is not without historicalprecedent. In 1986, EDSA People Power7 triumphedagainst a disgraceful and scandalous rule. It was amagnicent display of collective outrage, unbridleddetermination, and shared optimism. Twenty-veyears on, we are confronted by the disgrace of

wanting in food when we could have enough, and thescandal of having to rely on our neighbours when wecould feed our own.

It is time for change.

The way forward is unmistakably clear. Public andprivate spending on farms and shing villages mustincrease to levels that can unleash the productivepotential of farming and coastal communities. Publicspending and policy innovations must be put inplace to ensure climate change adaptation programsare crafted early and implemented for, with and by

vulnerable communities. Private sector resourcesand interest must be harnessed and directed towardskey points that can reinvigorate the domestic foodchain and mobilize the capacity of small agriculturalshareholders. Social protection programs must bedeveloped to strengthen the role of women in villagesand the market. The conversion of productiveagricultural lands for purposes other than foodproduction must cease. Developing a coherent,long-term strategy with respect to Philippine traderelations with neighbouring countries must serve, notharm, the objective of feeding Filipinos.

A corrodedfood chainAt a glance, the portion represented by the agricultural, shery and forestry sector

(referred to hereafter as agriculture) in the economy is deceiving. From oneperspective, the sector contributes less than a fth to the countrys gross domesticproduct (GDP). Yet, it absorbs more than a third of total employment.8 The entirefood chain in the Philippines, which includes food processing, manufacturingand trading of agricultural products, is as big as 40 percent of the economy andemploys about two-thirds of the workforce.9 Around 1.61 million people areengaged in shing, 1.40 million in coconut, 1.35 million in rice, 0.68 million incorn, and 1.39 million in sugarcane and other commodities.10

Decreasing investments in agricultureThe 1960s and 1970s saw the gradual but steady decline in the share of agri-culture to total GDP. By the 1980s the Philippines was already behind most

countries in the region in terms of agricultural gross value-added and agriculturalexports.11 Philippine agriculture only grew by an average of 1.7 percent per an-num in the years 1981-2003 even though the economy grew by 2.6 percent overthe same period.12 The reasons behind this are explained later in the report.

Opposite:Increasingly,the Philippines has

had to rely on importsto ll the countrys

depleted food basket.Today, 37% of its cereal

needs are imported.It also imports 99%

of its milk needs anddairy products and over

50% of coffee. (Photo:Veejay Villafranca)

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Table 1. Share of Department of Agriculture (DA) Budget to National Budget in

billion pesos

Source: H. Tanchuling (2011) 2012 Philippine Agriculture Budget, a PowerPoint presentation during the meeting of Rice Watch and Action Network (R1) inAdarna Restaurant, 12 May.

From 2000-2009, the Philippines was producing anannual average of 9.5 million metric tons of rice and5.5 million metric tons of corn, the two staples in theFilipino diet.13 Rice production was increasing at anaverage rate of 3.1 percent per year, lower than thegrowth rate for 1975-1985, which was 3.5 percent.14

Corn production rose by 5.6 percent. A slowdownwas noted in corn production in 2005, while riceproduction declined in 2009 (by 3.5 percent) andagain in 2010 (by 1.5 percent) due to a combinationof ooding in some areas and drought in others.During the growth years, increased production wasattributed to an expansion of harvested area, as yieldhovered around 4.9 tons per hectare for unmilled rice(palay) in irrigated farms and 2.6 tons per hectare innon-irrigated farms.15 Despite improved yields, localproductivity fell short of world average yields.

Increasing dependenceon imports for foodIncreasingly, the Philippines has had to rely onimports to ll the countrys increasingly depletedfood basket. Today, 37 percent of cereals in thePhilippines are imported. This includes rice and corn.The country also imports over 99 percent of its milkneeds and dairy products and over 50 percent ofcoffee.16 Although the Philippines is a net exporter ofshery products in terms of value, it is importing moresh by weight than it is exporting. 17

The Philippines has been a consistent net importerof ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations)products for years and has a negative trade balancewith seven out of nine ASEAN co-members. In2008, for example, the value of Philippine imports

from ASEAN countries stood at USD14.3 bn, whilePhilippine exports registered only USD7 bn. ThePhilippine agriculture trade decit to ASEAN co-members in the same year stood at USD1.9 bn.18In 2009, top Philippine agricultural exports earnedUSD3.135 billion. However, the Philippines spent

almost double the amount (USD6.079 billion) on topagricultural imports.19

The countrys negative trade balance could havepernicious effects to our agriculture sector alreadyreeling from underinvestment, thus unable tocompete against agricultural products from abroadthat are heavily supported by their governments.Thailands agriculture value added (% of GDP) was11.6 percent in 2008 while Vietnams was 22 percentin 2009.20 Moreover, relying on foreign trade forour food supply could place our country in a veryprecarious position given an increasingly volatile

world.

Graft and corruptionCompounding the sectors predicament, limitedfunds for agriculture are further eroded by graft andcorruption-related leakage. Reports of public fundsfor irrigation and farm-to-market roads handed outto buy political patronage abound.21 There is thecase of the alleged diversion of 728 million pesosfrom a national fertilizer fund to nance the electioncampaign of the Macapagal-Arroyo administrationticket.22 More recently, a government-commissioned

audit report revealed that the governments NationalFood Authority (NFA) lost more than 100 bn pesosin a span of 10 years due to irregular importationpractices which involve buying high, selling low, andstoring long.23


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In 2009, typhoon Ketsana (localname Ondoy) came like a thiefin the dead of night, surprisingresidents of a metropolis unusedto massive ooding. Relentingonly a day later, Ketsana left in itswake millions of pesos in damagesto properties and a populaceforever scarred by the memoryof too much rain too soon. The2011 Global Climate Risk Index

(CRI) of Germanwatch ranked thePhilippines 7th in the world in termsof losses and frequency of extremeweather events in the period 1990-2009. (Photo: Danny Victoriano)

The climate crisisClimate change imposes several severe risks as wellto farming communities.

Slow onset climate change impacts are projectedto generate considerable pressure on poor ruralcommunities. Rising sea levels will submergecoastal areas, displacing communities. Warmingtemperatures in some regions are expected to altersoil and crop productivity and negatively affectgrowing and harvesting practices. Changing rainfallpatterns in other regions are projected to inundatefarms annually.

There are also episodic impacts such as extremetyphoons and ooding.

In 2009, the Economy and Environment Programfor Southeast Asia (EEPSEA) of the InternationalDevelopment Research Centre (IDRC) surveyedthe sub-national areas (regions/districts/provinces)of Southeast Asia and found that all regions inthe Philippines are among those most vulnerableto climate change impacts.24 In the same year,Typhoons Ketsana and Parma hit the Philippines inrapid succession.

The 2011 Global Climate Risk Index (CRI) ofGermanWatch ranked the Philippines 7th in theworld in terms of losses and frequency of extremeclimatic events in the period 1990-2009. In 2009,the Philippines occupied the third topmost spot in theGermanwatch CRI.25

Unfortunately, funding for climate change adaptationremains woefully inadequate and unpredictable.Financing has come mostly in pledges; the pledgedsums are several magnitudes lower than projected

needs. A bigger portion of climate nance fromabroad that has entered Philippine coffers has beenallocated to climate mitigation projects while fundsthat have gone to adaptation activities have come inthe modality of loans.

Addressing equity, sustainable

production and building resilienceThe continued conversion of agricultural lands,degradation of ecosystems and impacts of climatechange have doubled the burden on agriculturalcommunities that have received diminishing supportfrom the national government. The combination hasmade the Philippines more vulnerable to future globalfood price surges. It has created a corrosive effect onthe countrys ability to secure the food needed by itsrapidly growing population.

Even good news on the horizon needs to betempered with other realities.

The prospect of a bumper rice harvest for 201117.4million metric tons, an increase by 15 percent from theprevious yearhas placed the government in an upbeatmood.26 Greater transparency in rice procurementand more targeted agriculture support programs canincrease production further. Yet the gains might be fornaught if other development policy initiatives are notundertaken with a higher sense of urgency.

By 2025, the Philippine population is projected toreach the 120 million mark.27

The journey towards a brighter and more bountifulfuture for the Philippines must begin now. To dothis, we must overcome the challengesof equity, ofsustainable production, and of resilience.


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Equity challengeFood security is central to the notion of food justice.28 Poverty pervades in ruralareas, where the means to produce food should ourish. In the countryside, womenare the rst to go hungry. Their capacity to survive crises is greatly undermined bythe pursuit of awed policies while their ability to contribute to solving fundamental

farming sector problems is ignored.29

Where and when there is economic growth, rural women partake of so little, if at all,from the development pie.

A large number of the poor andhungry are found in rural areas,

particularly in coastal shing villagesand the uplands. And it is poor rural

women, such as this mother fromKalinga, north of the Philippines,

who are the rst to go hungry.Women often give up meals for

their children when food is scarce.(Photo: Lan Mercado)

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State of food insecurityThe National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB)estimates that 1.5 million Filipino families (i.e. atleast 7.5 million Filipinos) do not have the income toensure that basic household nutritional requirementsare met.30

Social Weather Stations (SWS), a survey institute,reported that in March 2011, 20.5 percent of Filipinofamilies -- or 4.15 million Filipino families -- wentwithout food at least once or more times in the lastthree months.31

A large number of the poor and hungry are foundin rural areas, particularly in coastal shing villagesand the uplands. From year 2000 onwards, threeMindanao regions (Zamboanga Peninsula, Caragaand ARMM) had been among the areas with thehighest proportion of people living in poverty. Whileonly one-third of poor Filipinos live in Mindanao, morethan half of the provinces in the bottom cluster arelocated in the Mindanao area. This situation can beattributed to the armed conict and unsettled peaceand order.32

Jobless growthIn the last few years, the Philippines experienceduninterrupted growth in annual gross national product(GNP), peaking at 7.3 percent in January 2010thehighest ever in over 3 decades.33

However, growth appears to be occurring without anet increase in employment and without growth in

real income, a phenomena called jobless growth.34According to the National Statistics Ofce (NSO),the jobless rate currently stands at 7.3 percent (2.9million), a slight increase from the 2.8 million gureregistered in 2009.35 Worse, the touted growthdoes not include the farm and sheries sectorswhere around 800,000 jobs were lost by April 2010compared to the previous year.36

Income gap keeps food

out of reachNational average family income increased by almost20 percent per annum during the period 2000 to2009. Average family incomes also rose in Mindanao,but at a slower rate.37 When gures are adjustedto take ination into account, however, a differentpicture emerges. Though incomes rose very slightlyin 2009, national average family incomes fell by 10.5percent between 2000 and 2006.

Unequal income distribution can skew the shareof total income spent on food and the sensitivity ofconsumers to food price changes, especially poorpeople. In the Philippines, the richest 20 percent offamilies control more than half of total income, andthe poorest 50 percent get no more than 20 percent. 38

The share of food in Filipino household budgetsdiffers dramatically between income classes. Thebottom 50 percent of the population spend as much

as 56 percent of their income on food while the upper20 percent spend less, around 32 percent.39 Thechanges in food prices also have different impactson households with different incomes. The food pricesurge in 2008, for example, saw food shares amongthe poorer half rise by 1.3 percent; the gure for therichest 20 percent is only half of that.40 This meansthat food price surges squeeze the lower classes

more than other groups, depleting their funds for theirchildrens education and other necessities.

Feast and FamineClass-differentiated access to food has resulted insignicant numbers of under-nourished (underweightstate; stunted) and over-nourished (overweight fortheir age) children. The number of underweightchildren from the lowest income group is four timeshigher than the number of similarly situated childrenin the highest income group. Meanwhile, theproportion of overweight children in the 0 to 5 years

age group is highest among children in the highestincome group, which is about seven times higherthan the lowest income group.41

Over-nutrition and obesity incidence among adultshas increased by 20 percent since 1993. In the sameperiod, underweight incidence among adults wentdown but at a slower rate (10 percent) compared toobesity. Around 4.2 percent of 11-12 year-olds and3.4 percent of 13-19 year-olds are overweight; theproblem is more prevalent among females.42

Obesity does not necessarily imply people are

well off and have enough to eat; obesity in thePhilippines is linked to bad nutrition, which couldalso be a public health issue. Drastic changes inconsumption patterns bear this out. There has beena gradual increase in consumption of rice from 287grams in 1993 to 317 grams in 2008 (or 12 percentin 15 years), the highest since 1978. Consumptionof other cereals and cereal products (breads andbakery products, noodles and snack foods fromwheat our) increased by 36 percent from 22 gramsin 1993 and 30 grams in 2003; this increase wasarrested, at least temporarily, in 2008. Intake ofstarchy roots and tubers, a good source of dietary

bre, halved from 37 grams per day in 1973 to 19grams per day in 2003 and 17 grams in 2008.

There has been a modest rise in the consumptionof sugars and syrups, but a dramatic rise, by 150percent between 1993 and 2003, in the intake ofsoft drinks; this trend was (temporarily) arrestedin 2008 which saw mean one-day per capita foodconsumption of all sugars and syrups falling from 24grams to 17 grams. The consumption of meat andmeat products increased by 79 percent between1993 and 2003 but fell slightly in 2008. 43

The increasing consumption of high-calorie foods,such as fats (meats), snacks and sugar (includingsoft drinks) could be traced to several interrelatedfactors. One factor is rapid urbanization, andaccess of urban dwellers to cheap, ready-to-eat food. Another is the bombardment of the


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populace, particularly children and young people, byadvertisements selling hotdogs and other processedmeats, snack foods, and soft drinks. When these arepaired with increasing money income, changing dietsoccur.44

Increased access to these low-cost, high-caloriefoods, coupled with limited physical activity, has been

linked to increasing obesity among young people andadults. Research shows that obesity does not onlyreduce a persons productivity; it could also tax thecountrys health system.45

How do people cope with hunger?Recent price shocks and periods marked by marketvolatility have reduced household options to addressnutritional needs. People borrowed money or food;did with less, or did without.46 Women resorted topoor quality rice and cheap food, stretching availablefood, fortifying canned sardines or instant noodle

by adding malunggay, food rationing and, in somecases, doing away with one meal.47 Children also leftfor school without breakfast and/or money for lunch.This phenomenon of rising hunger is captured bythe SWS quarterly hunger surveys which climbed upfrom the rst quarter of 2007 and reached its peak inthe rst quarter of 2011.48

As food prices climb, so does the number of peoplegoing hungry increase. In 2008, more than 7 in 10households felt insecure about the availability andadequacy of food, and more than 5 in 10 could notfeed their children with adequate, nutritious food.49

Meanwhile, at the individual level, more than a fourthof mothers and caregivers and a smaller proportion

of children (18 percent) skipped or missed meals, orwere hungry but did not eat. Many women act outgender expectations and willingly keep their foodintake to a minimum whenever food crises occur, asentiment that was shared by urban and rural poorwomen.50

In the midst of the food price crisis there was a

decline in the intake of most of the food groups, withthe exception of rice, which increased signicantly.As a result, there was an increase of around 10percentage-points in the proportion of householdsthat did not meet the per capita dietary energyrequirement. There was an increase in the under-nutrition (underweight for age) rate among childrenand adolescents, while the rate of over-nutrition(overweight) among them remained the same.51

To avoid deepening the effects of the crisis, womenembarked on whatever enterprises would bring themincome. This was especially true for those whose

spouses lost their jobs in the midst of the global nancialcrisis.52 Some women (or their daughters) migrated totowns or cities while some others were pushed to takedire measurestrading their body for food.53 Still othersresorted to pawning or mortgaging moveable assets,and later selling off productive assets such as land,boats, or sh nets.54

To millions of rural households in the Philippines,however, one of the most important safety nets isafforded by remittances of members who are workingoverseas. As long as the migrant workers were notaffected by global crises and/or the peso did not overly

appreciate, the households left behind were relativelysafe, even from food price surges.


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Opposite: Recent price shocks and periods marked by market volatility have reduced household options to address nutritional needs. Women resorted topoor quality rice and cheap food, stretching available food, fortifying canned sardines or instant noodle by adding malunggay, food rationing and, in somecases, doing away with one meal. (Photo: Veejay Villafranca)

Women farmers like Trinidad Domingo (above) can and will contribute signicantly in producing food but they are not getting the support they need to do this.Only 36 percent of women farmers have access to irrigation, only 29 percent have access to seeds, 26 percent to training, 23 percent to extension services,21 percent to fertilizer and seeds subsidy, 20 percent to pest control management, 20 percent to calamity assistance, and 14 percent to nancial assistance.(Photo: Veejay Villafranca)

Women in agriculture struggling

against the oddsAs of 2002, more than half a million women workedas farmers or farm managers. Another 2.7 millionwomen from agricultural households worked ontheir own holding as unremunerated labour (62.4percent of unpaid workers on their own farms);clearly outnumbering the 1.6 million male householdmembers who were similarly occupied (36.4 percent).More men than women hire themselves out to other

holdings.

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Women provide crucial labour inputs for planting,weeding, and harvesting. Many participate in decidingon the variety of crops to plant or the breed oflivestock kept. They are also charged with marketingthe produce, and are instrumental in accessing farmcapital (often out of their savings or by borrowingfrom relatives). Some crops (vegetables) are equallywomens and mens crops, while a few (tubers,including onions) are practically womens crops.Many grow their crops intercropped with, or asalternative dry season crop to, rice or corn.56

Some women in shing communities contribute to thecapture, sale and/or processing of shery products,and engage or invest in aquaculture. In 2009, womenfarmers contributed to the FAO-reported productionof 23.3 million tons of rice and corn, 2.98 milliontons of starchy roots or tubers (primarily cassava),22.93 million tons of sugarcane and 5.3 million tonsof vegetables. In 2008, women provided labour (andsome, the capital) to produce 3.3 million tons ofshery and aquaculture products.57

Women farmers and farm workers, and womenincome earners, face even greater difcultiesthan men do in growing enough food or earningenough money to feed their families. They areoften considered the farmer or agricultural holderonly when there is no male adult in the family.This neglects the fact that there may be as manyfarmers as there are crops cultivated or grown by ahousehold.

Women can and will contribute signicantly in raisingfood outputs but they are not getting the support theyneed to do this. Only 36 percent of women farmers


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have access to irrigation, only 29 percent haveaccess to seeds, 26 percent to training, 23 percent toextension services, 21 percent to fertilizer and seedssubsidy, 20 percent to pest control management, 20percent to calamity assistance, and 14 percent tonancial assistance.58

What will happen if women farmers are given the

same level of support as men farmers? Based onFAO and government estimates of the share ofwomen farmers (10.8 percent) to total number offarmers, food production of women will likely increaseby 25 percent and total national food production byat least 1.6 percent.59 A more realistic estimate of theimpact on total food production would probably be inthe region of 3 percent.

Ageing farmers, deserted farmsIn recent years more and more young Filipinos fromrural areas have left the countryside in search of

higher and more stable income.60

The demographics

bear this out. Since 1980, the countrys populationhas become more and more urbanized, with theshare of urban population rising from 37.5 percent in1980 to 54 percent in 1995, and an estimated 67.4percent in 2010.61 A study estimated that a higherproportion of adult sons and daughters migrated thanprincipal males of households.62 Outmigration fromfarms partly explains why the average age of farmers,

at least according to one estimate, is 57 yearsold.63 Outmigration from the farms could potentiallylead to labour shortages unless the benets frommore gainful out-farm employment are convertedinto the improvement of the farm itselfe.g. farmmechanization and improved capacity to buy seedsand inputs.64

The seeming lack of enthusiasm in the farmsmirrors the declining rate of enrolment in agriculture,forestry, and natural resources (AFNR) courses inthe country.65 All these point to the need to make thefarms more attractive to the young. Increasing farm

productivity and protability is critical.

68 year-old onion grower Ligaya Oria belongs to the ageing population of farmers as more and more rural youths migrate to the cities in search of a betterlife. Outmigration from farms could potentially lead to labour shortages unless the benets for more gainful out-farm employment are converted into theimprovement of the farm itself. (Photo: Veejay Villafranca)


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Intensive agricultural land use without compensating investment in soil conservation and fertility has contributed to the degradation of some 13 millionhectares, or 44% of the countrys land area. (Photo: Lan Mercado)

SustainableproductionchallengeInfertile land, degraded resourcesPhilippine lowlands make up 48 percent of the nations total landmass. Largetracts of land have been experiencing declines in productivity despite fertilizer

application under modern intensive farming methods. Intensive agriculturalland use without compensating investment in soil conservation and fertility hascontributed to the degradation of some 13 million hectares, or 44 percent of thecountrys total land area.66

In our town, people are used to not having water during the hotseason and too much water during the rainy season. Potable

water is getting saltier. Ocean waves now reach 2 meters into theland surace. Many areas reserved or agriculture are currently

unutilized or planting because o the intrusion o saltwater.

Joelyn Biag, Province of Northern Samar


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By the late 1990s, logging and land clearing for agriculture had destroyed 66percent of the nations natural forest cover, and had contributed to the lossof topsoil of some 5.2 million hectares, of which 2.4 million hectares are inMindanao.67 Reforestation in the past few years and tree plantations havereclaimed 14 percentage points of the forest cover lost.68 Unfortunately, there hasbeen little rehabilitation of the 0.32 million hectares of mangrove forests that weredestroyed by 1999.69

Table 5. Estimates of resource deterioration, Philippines

Item Most recent data Year & source

Land degradation (globalestimate)

Covering 13 million hectares

Affecting 33 million Filipinos1981-2003; GLADA Report No. 4

Land erosion (FAO-LADAexercise in the Phil.)

5.2 million hectares, of which 2.4million are in Mindanao

1993; BSWM, as cited byCarating

Remaining natural forestcover

5.4 million hectares, or 34% offorestland, including 0.114 millionhectares of mangrove forest

1999, 2003; ESSC/ManilaObservatory, Kumer (as

cited by Ernesto S. Guiang,Environmental Analysis,USAID/Philippines Strategy for2004-2009, dated May 2004)

Total forest cover(including tree plantationand permanent, perennialhigh-value crops)

7.168 million hectares, or 48.4 offorestland

O.330 million hectares consist ofplantation forest

2008; DENR

Biodiversity loss(in connection withdeforestation)

IUCN has red-agged thePhilippines as one of the mostendangered of the worldsbiodiversity hot spots

www.sitesources.world.bank.org/ INTPHILIPPINES/Resources/DB23-NRMcombined-June23.pdfCoastal and marine

resource degradation

74 percent of the countrys coralreefs are only in fair to poorcondition; caused by illegal shing

Mangrove forests were estimatedat 4,500 sq km in 1900, down to1,300 sq km in 1999

Seagrass and algae have alsodeclined

Water is critical for crops, whether rainfed or

irrigated, but at certain times and places, eitherthere is too much water (oods brought byheavy rains) or too little (frequent and prolongeddroughts). Degradation of vegetation cover andcritical weaknesses in the management of waterdistribution systems and inefciencies in wateruse have contributed to the countrys waterproblems.70 According to one study, a decit inwater availability will occur in several river basinsin Pampanga, Laguna, and Cagayan Valley, all other

regions in Luzon, and in the island of Cebu by 2025.71

With better water management, the country canincrease total rice production by 3 million tons bybringing an additional 1.5 million hectares underirrigation and by using existing irrigation watermore efciently. Rice yields can increase from 3.03tons/hectare to at least 5.1 tons/hectare by usingagroecological practices such as System of RiceIntensication (SRI). This could increase total riceproduction by another 3 million tons.


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Better ways abound:System of Rice Intensication in the Philippines

SRI is based upon a set of principles and practices forincreasing the productivity of irrigated rice by changingthe management of plants, soil, water and nutrients.The practices contribute to both more fertile soil andhealthier plants supported by greater root growth and

the nurturing of soil microbial abundance and diversity.

Local group SRI-Pilipinas, an Oxfam-assistedorganization, records an average of 6.4 tons perhectare, which is a yield gain of around 114 percentover the current national average; and higher returns oninvestment (as much as 300% in one site). Claims foryield gains of rice hybrids over the best inbreds usuallyrange from 15-20 percent in ofcial publications to 100-200 percent in newspaper accounts.

However, the recommended management practices forhybrid rice include single seedlings per hill and widerspacing between hills, which are SRI practices. Thissuggests that at least a portion of the yield gains fromhybrid rice comes from the management practices and apossible SRI effect instead of the genetics.

In many countries, SRI practices of maintaining

soil moisture, plant spacing, and, properly timedtransplantation have led to an 80-90 percent reduction inseeds; 25-50 percent less water; reduced emissions ofmethane gas, which is 25 times more harmful than CO2;and substantial reductions in the use of acid rain-causingnitrogen fertilizer.

Sources: 1) SRI International Network and Resources Center; 2) R.Verzola System of Rice Intensication (SRI): Practices and Resultsin the Philippines; 3) Africare, Oxfam America, WWF-ICRISAT(2010) More Rice for People, More Water for the Planet

More government funding will be needed to rehabilitate

degraded shing grounds and this does not seem to be

forthcoming. Historically low to begin with, the budgetfor sheries was further slashed by 35% in 2011.

(Photo: Veejay Villafranca)


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Collapsing sh stocksAs early as the 1990s, the total sh catch seemed tohave levelled off despite the continued expansion ofthe countrys commercial shing eets.72 Around thistime, bottom-dwelling sh in major shing areas hadfallen by a range of 65-90 percent compared to theirbaseline level in the 1940s to 1970s.73 An estimateshows that as early as 2004 capture sheries haveexceeded its maximum sustainable yield or MSY.74This means that the current yield is already aborrowing from future harvests and that no increasein the number of shing boats and shing equipmentwill yield a net increase in output unless the shinggrounds recover their productivity.

Philippine sheries are in an unhealthy state.The countrys Comprehensive National Fisheries

Industry Development Plan (CNFIDP) proposes toclose the domestic sh food demand-supply gap bymaintaining capture sheries to its 2004 yield leveland through responsible aquaculture.75 One caneasily see how these propositions could prove to be abig gamble.

For one, more government funding will be neededto rehabilitate degraded shing grounds and thisdoes not seem to be forthcoming. Historicallylow to begin with, the budget for sheries wasfurther slashed by 35% for the year 2011. Mostworrisome in some ways is the planned shift from

capture sheries to aquaculture. There are over1.3 million municipal shers compared to 226thousand aquaculture operators.76 Given the sorrystate of capture sheries, one can understand whythe government is shifting priorities and putting

nances into aquaculture.However, in doing so, itis also draining money away from what is needed toimplement measures to conserve wild sh stocks andrehabilitate the sheries.

Furthermore, there are grounds for concern thatshifts to aquaculture will actually have severenegative impacts on capture sheries. It is also

because aquaculture has intrinsic problems thathave raised, time and again, serious issues about itssustainability. Cultured sh depend on stocks fromthe wild for sh oil and sh meals. It is estimatedthat 320,000 tons of wild sh per year are wastedforbangus (milksh) and tilapia aquaculture alone.77

Wastes in aquaculture ponds and pens have aparticularly harmful effect on enclosed areas with

slow water exchange rates where they caused algalblooms and low oxygen levels. The recent massiveshkills in Batangas and Pangasinan as well as themany others which occurred beyond the media glareare painful reminders that the country has a long wayto go in xing basic problems associated with theaquaculture industry.78

Defective land distributionThe link between high inequality in land distributionand low long-term growth in developing countriesis clear. So is the link between the pace of poverty

reduction and land distribution.80

For decades, thegovernment has invested heavily in distributing landsto farmers through various agrarian reform programs.As of 2006, land distribution under the VoluntaryLand Transfer (VLT) mode has been an astonishing

Fishery Production by Fishing type and year/period

Source: Bureau of Agricultural Statistics, in million metric tons

Production(inmetricton)

1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009Year


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We fshers are aected by landslides because all o it goes to the shore.Sedimentation covers the seagrass, corals, mangrove areas. Tis greatly

aects us because our fsh catch is low to begin with, and with thedestruction o breeding grounds, there will be less and less fsh or us.

Melinda Diaz, Province of Sorsogon79

As global prices of staples more than doubled in the last two

years, global agribusiness and speculators, and rich but land-

poor countries have embarked on land-grabbing sprees in

the developing world. (Photo: Veejay Villafranca)

achievement, distributing more than double thenational target of 288,492 hectares. However, thisis because landowners are allowed to select thefarmer to whom the land will be transferred. Thetransfer sometimes happens on paper only, or thelandlord reacquires it later, so the eventual recipientsare rarely the ones who actually till the land. Instark contrast, land transfer under Compulsory LandAcquisition (CLA) was not as signicant (only 18%of the national target of about 1.5 million hectares)because landowners threw a barrage of legalobstacles to be able to hold onto the land.81

The land distribution program under theComprehensive Agrarian Reform Law was originallydesigned to run for 10 years until 1998. Congresshas had to extend the program until 2008 but eventhe extended period did not allow for the completionof the distribution targets. In 2009, Congresspassed the Republic Act 9700 or the Comprehensive

Agrarian Reform Program with Extension withReforms which provides for the budget of 150 billionfor distributing 1 million hectares and to nance theextension services to agrarian reform beneciaries(ARB) for the period of ve years. Concerns havebeen raised whether the new law will be able todeliver the targets. The distribution of the remaining1.3 million hectares of private lands alone wouldamount to 195 billion pesos, which is way above the150 billion pesos budget allotment that includes theDAR operations expenses including the budgets forcredit and extension services to ARBs.82

LandgrabsIn fact, despite the land distribution program, landholding trends seem to be going the other waytowards continuing concentration. In many cases,smallholder farmers lease back the lands awardedto them under the agrarian reform program, or


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sometimes sell them outright. All these lead to thereconsolidation of land in the hands of individualand/or agribusiness corporate investors. Moreover,by granting concessions or permits, nationalgovernment agencies and local government unitshave been complicit in the conversion of so-calledidle or marginal lands for non-food cultivation.In some areas, they have also opened the way to

the virtual privatization of big portions of bays andlakes for sh cages, marshes, and the foreshore fortourism.

During the past six years, three Philippinegovernment agencies (Departments of Agriculture[DA], Agrarian Reform [DAR] and Environment andNatural Resources [DENR]) have been charged toundertake the National Convergence Initiative (NCI).

Under the NCI, they oversee the development ofover 1.83 million hectares of land for agribusiness,reportedly generating about 2.67 million jobs between2005 and 2010.83

More recently, as global prices of staples morethan doubled in the space of 30 months, globalagribusiness companies and speculators, and rich

but land-poor countries have embarked on land-grabbing sprees in the developing world.84 ThePhilippines has become a willing partner in theseland ventures. State and private investors from Chinahave been negotiating for land deals with the nationaland/or local governments. The Gulf countries havealso reportedly shown interest in investing in variousagricultural ventures in the Philippines. The newand emerging deals involve 3.0 million hectares.

Table 6. Selected agribusiness investments recorded by the Department of

Agriculture in the Philippines, 2011Corporation

San MiguelKuok FoodSecurity

Inc.84

Governmentof Qatar

Governmentof SaudiArabia

Governmentof Brunei

Governmentof Oman

Governmentof Kuwait

Governmentof NewZealand

Commodity

Rice, corn,cassava, oil palm,feedstock, dairy,

mariculture85

Rice

Rice, corn,sorghum, barley,alfalfa, red meat

Rice

Rice

Rice, corn

Livestock

Hectarage

1,000,000

100,000

200,000

10,000

10,000

20,000

500

Investment coverage

Development of green areas intofood production areas along withthe establishment of logistics,postharvest and processingfacilities for the raw crop produce

Development of green areas intofood production areas along withthe establishment of logistics,postharvest and processing

facilities, logistics support andprimary processing plants

Development of new areas forrice and corn production with theestablishment of the necessaryfacilities, logistics support andprimary processing plants

Development of green areasinto food production with theestablishment of logistics,postharvest and processingfacilities for the new crop produce

Development of new areasfor food production with theestablishment of the necessarypostharvest facilities, logisticssupport and primary processingplants

Development of new areasfor food production with theestablishment of the necessarypostharvest facilities

Development of new areas forlivestock breeding and dairyfarming

Business arrangement

Supply and purchaseagreement, corporatefarming, lease and co-management

Joint Venture, Leaseand Corporate farming

Joint Venture

Corporate Farming,Lease and Co-Management

Joint Venture, Lease

Joint Venture and

Corporate FarmingJoint Venture andLease

Source: R. Ravanera, and V. Gorra (2011), Commercial Pressures on Land in Asia: An Overview. International land Coalition and InternationalFund for Agriculture and Development


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Together with the agribusiness farms under the NCI,some 5.67 million hectares, or over 18 percent of thecountrys total area have been committed for biofuelsand agricultural exports.85

What will this do for food security? There are manyconcerns. Having been declared by national andlocal governments as idle, tracts of land that may

have been planted by women with tubers have beenleased to foreign or local agribusiness investors.At times, the women have little say on the leasesince they may have just borrowed the land froma relative or a neighbour.86 Original landownersdiscover belatedly that the agreed lease payment hasbeen grossly undervalued but they have fallen intoa legal trap that will bind them for 25 and sometimes50 years. Moreover, the promised jobs rarely go tothe women and men in the communities that areaffected by the lands conversion.87 As a result,

agri-business ventures may not only be reducingthe capacity of communities to produce food. Moredamaging perhaps are the adverse effects createdon sustainable livelihood opportunities for ruralhouseholds.

Meanwhile, the private development of coastal orlake foreshore lands has robbed small scale shers

of access to the foreshore for landing boats andlimited or denied access to women who need theforeshore for drying sh and seaweed culture. Insome areas, they have also lost access to mangroveresources, such as shellsh, juvenile sh andrewood. In other areas, the shers, many of whomhave no secure claims on home lots, have beenpushed to encroach on mangrove forests as they tryto form informal settlements.89

In Bacoor, fsherolk houses are being demolished and are being relocated in areas very ar romthe fshing areas. But fshing is our main livelihood. Dismantling o fsh cages is aecting the

livelihood o poor aquaculture fshworkers. Pollution in Manila Bay remains unresolved, with

rampant disposal o domestic and human wastes, since we do not have sanitation acilities.

Rosario Mendoza of Bacoor, Cavite88



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Some government policies are feeding the frenzyfor landgrabs. This is particularly true in the case ofthe Biofuels Act of 2006 (RA9367) that required aminimum ve percent bioethanol blend by 2009 forgasoline sold and two percent biodiesel blend fordiesel.

The law offers generous tax incentive packages and

loan portfolios to biofuel companies. It is particularlynoted for its dilution of key agrarian reform policiesbecause it prioritizes biofuel production sites asdevelopment areas for land conversion.90 The mostproblematic aspect of the law is the preferentialtreatment it provides to biofuels feedstock and blendproducers, distributors and sellers where the law isinterpreted in their favour should there be conicts inlegal interpretation.91

Life Gets Harder

Life is hard, says Blesilda (real name withheldfor security reasons), a resident of Tulunan, NorthCotabato. Her family is among those who leasedtheir land to A.C. Garcia Corporation, a company thatoperates a 700-hectare oil palm plantation in Tulunan,believing that it will help them cope with the hardshipsthey are facing.

She agreed to lease her land to the company for 5,000pesos (approx. USD100) per hectare per year, with athree-year advance payment in rent including provisionof title for untitled lands, payment of real property taxand employment in the company. All these promisesnever materialized. She refused the companys offer ofemployment because of low wages.

She now regrets her decision to lease the land becauseshe and her family could have earned more from theland if they cultivated it themselves.

At present, we have very limited source of livelihood.And my husband is sickly so he cant anymore worklong hours, laments Blesilda, now aged 45 and thebreadwinner to a daughter and a sickly husband.

Source: This case study was lifted from Alternative Forumfor Research in Mindanao [AFRIM] (2011) Effects of LandConversion for Agrofuel Production in Conict VulnerableCommunities of Mindanao an Oxfam-commissioned research,

page 22

Food price surges

heighten vulnerabilities

among households,

as access to foodbecomes fragile.



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The resilience challengeGlobal pressures

Poverty and inequality, marginalisation of women, inadequate diets, falteringproduction of basic grains, land grabsall these are systemic failures thataffect the availability of food. To these are now added sudden and large-scaleenvironmental and economic shocks to the food system.

| 23


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When the price of nearly every agriculturalcommodity sharply increased in 2007 and 2008, itcreated what has been called a global food pricebubble.92 When prices peaked in the second quarterof 2008, the world price of corn was three timeshigher than at the beginning of 2003, while that ofrice was ve times higher.

The impact of the global price hike shook thePhilippines as the countrys Consumer Price Index(CPI) ination rose by 6.4 percentage points in 2009and its real GDP growth fell by 3.2 percentage points.Retail prices of rice continued to be higher in 2009and 2010 in the aftermath of Typhoons Ketsana (localname: Ondoy) and Parma (local name: Pepeng).

In February 2011, global prices of rice in US dollarterms declined slightly from the recent peaks insome countries. The softening in some countries(such as Thailand and Vietnam) coincided withthe arrival of the new harvest of the early season

crop.93 However, prices in some importing countries,such as the Philippines and Indonesia, have yet toreect the downturn seen in other countries and aremuch higher and have risen faster in recent monthsthan in the exporting countries.94 The rosy forecastof a bumper harvest might soften the blow fromglobal pressures, but caution is still required. Forexample, the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysicaland Astronomical Service Administration (PAGASA)has already made a public pronouncement of anextremely wet 2011, a two-fold increase in the numberof cyclones compared to the 11 recorded in 2010.95

In view of the closer links between the food, biofuelsand oil markets, volatilities in the last two also affectthe price of food, as well as of agricultural inputs,such as fertilizers. In the period 2007-2008, the totalper hectare cost of producing rice increased by 20percent; it has since gone down, but only slightly.96

Food prices are important as they eat into thepurchasing power of unchanged incomes. Currently,the Philippines ranks in the middle of the 25economies most vulnerable to the expected surges infood prices.97

Ination in the past years has been driven by foodprice increases, particularly rice and corn.98 Thecombination of the spike in the global price of rice,the global nancial crisis and Typhoons Ketsanaand Parma and the earlier Typhoon Frank caused atwo-digit ination rate for rice and corn (28.5 percentand 24.9 percent, respectively). Another factor thatis likely to continue to exert an upward pressure onfood prices is the increasing diversion of farmland tobiofuels and the provisioning of other countries foodrequirements.99

Food price surges heighten vulnerabilities amonghouseholds, as access to food becomes fragile.This is especially true among those already living inpoverty, where food accounts for over half of theirbudget.

Rising temperature and its impacts

Tere is a local bird called uhaw, because othe sound it makes. I the bird cries Uhaw!,

you will know that it will be sunny tomorrow.But now, even the bird cannot predict the

weather, so the traditional early warningsystems are not working anymore.

Zeny Mansiliohan, a woman tribal leader,Province of Agusan del Sur

At the global level, Oxfam warns that food pricesare projected to increase by something in the rangeof 70 to 90 per cent by 2030 before the effects ofclimate change, which will roughly double price risesagain.100

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

(IPCC) noted an increase of 0.14C per decade inmean temperatures in the Philippines. Since the1980s there has been an increase in annual meanrainfall. Since the 1990s there has also been anincrease in the number of rainy days and the inter-annual variability of onset of rainfall.101

Evidence of the impacts of climate change in thePhilippines is just as well-noted. The ve mostdevastating typhoons ever recorded in the historyof the Philippines occurred from 1990 and onwards,affecting 23 million people.102 Four of the costliesttyphoons in recorded history occurred from 1990 and

onwards, with combined damages costing aroundUSD1.13 bn.103

Two of the severest droughts ever recorded occurredin the period 1991-92 and 1997-98. The formeraffected the combined area of 461,800 hectaresin Mindanao, Central and Western Visayas, andCagayan Valley and caused a combined lossamounting to over 4 bn pesos. The latter affectedabout 292,00 hectares of rice and corn resulting ina loss of 622,106 mt of rice production and 565,240mt of corn with an estimated value of over 1.5 bnpesos.104

Projections by PAGASA reveal that the countrysincrease in mean annual temperature will be about0.9C by 2020 and 1.7C to 2.4C by 2050. This willthreaten the countrys ability to produce food unlessdrastic changes take place soon. Rice yield alone isprojected to fall by around 10 percent for each 1Cincrease in night temperature during the growingseason.105

Farmers and sherfolk are well aware of changes inthe climate. They feel the repercussions. Oxfam hasinterviewed numerous shers who are concerned thatsh shoals are not where they should have been andfarmers who are unable to predict, as they did, whenis the best time to grow and harvest.


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The ve most

devastating typhoons

ever recorded in the

history of the Philippines

occurred from 1990 and

onwards, with combined

damages costing around

USD 1.13 billion.(Photo: Danny Victoriano)

Typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng, 2009

Damages from Ketsana and Parmawere magnied by the fact that theseoccurred in highly populated economic

centres. The damage (direct costs)and losses (indirect costs) incurredduring the disasters were estimatedto be equivalent to about 2.7 percentof GDP, which is comparable to othermajor recent disasters across the world(e.g. the 2005 tsunami in Aceh, or 2008Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar).

Small farmers bore the brunt ofthe economic losses. Damages toirrigation facilities and other agriculturalinfrastructures had a negative impacton the next (2010) summer crop. Atotal of 2.8 bn pesos was required forreconstruction and rehabilitation, ofwhich 85 percent would need to goto restore damaged Level 2 irrigationsystems.

A total of 172 million workdays werelost, which resulted in losses amountingto 50.4bn pesos of incomes in 2009,particularly in the retail and wholesaletrades (which amounted to 32.6bnpesos, or 64 percent of total incomeslost). Industry and agriculture lossesamounted to 13bn pesos and 3.7bnpesos, respectively.

Outside agriculture, the negativeimpacts were felt most strongly bymicro-,small-, and medium-sizedenterprises, which normally havelimited or no access to formal credit;and informal housing units that hadbeen erected in ood areas, which haveresulted in very high reconstructioncosts that involve partial re-settlement.

For those living just above the povertyline, disasters such as Typhoons Ondoyand Pepeng are likely to propel them

back into poverty.

Source: Philippines. Typhoons Ondoy andPepeng: A Post-Disaster Needs Assessment,Vol. 1, 26 November 2009

In the face of future climate-related disasters, there is a need for thegovernment and other sectors to invest in preparatory, emergencyrelief, and rehabilitation measures. As important, however, is aninvestment in helping everyone, particularly the poor, not only toride out the disasters, but to adapt their livelihoods to the changingclimate as well.

In recent years there has been a strong interest in Weather IndexInsurance (WII) as an effective mechanism for transferring weather-related risks that affect the farmers. WII encourages farmers toinvest time, money and labour because of the expectation of anautomatic payout for damages if a serious weather disturbanceoccurs. Risks are not rationally spread across current and potentialactors. Present policy frameworks do not appear to encourage orincentivize risk sharing with the private sector.


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Predictability amid uncertainty: The case for WeatherIndex Insurance in the Provinces of Isabela, Kalingaand Cagayan

Typhoon Megi (local name Juan) made landfall asa Category 5 typhoon in Northern Philippines on 18October 2010. The damage to agriculture reached 11.5bn pesos. The typhoon also caused irreversible land

damage on 10 to 15 percent of farms located along riverbanks and low-lying areas in the worst-affected provincesof Isabela, Cagayan, and Kalinga, which was why Oxfamresponded with humanitarian relief in those areas. Priorto Typhoon Megi these areas were also affected byEl Nio-associated drought in early 2010 and by TyphoonParma in October 2009.

Extreme weather events like the droughts in 2010 andthe typhoons Parma and Megi have become a familiarxture in the lives of the farmers in these provinces. Thedisruptions destroy valuable productive assets, whichare the lifeblood of the economy. In the aftermath of adisaster, affected families have been known to sell theirremaining assets, often at depressed prices.

Oxfam and MicroEnsure, an international microinsurancecompany, are looking into Weather Index Insurance (WII),a nancial risk transfer mechanism that will pay out tofarmers based on certain changes in parameters such asrainfall and drought conditions. WII is a promising meansto put affected farmers back on their feet again after adisaster strikes.

Source: Oxfam and MicroEnsure-Philippines, forthcoming

Chaos in climate nancing

At the start o each planting season, Im always in debt because o loansrom the traders in the amount o 30,000 pesos, which I use to buy ertilizer,

pesticide and other arm needs. When yphoon Juan struck, it broughtwith it strong winds and heavy rains. My rice crops, which were about to be

harvested, had their stalks bent, wasting them. Te roo o my house that wasstill under construction was blown o. Our hardships became so intense with

the total destruction o our crops. I had also harvested some rice but it wasmeagre and browned and wasnt enough to settle my loan rom the traders.

Ronald G. Luis of Carmencita village, Deln Albano town, Province of Isabela

As early as 1995, the Philippines convened aconference on climate change among Asia-Pacicleaders. The parties came up with the ManilaDeclaration, signed by 133 countries, whichacknowledged the dangers posed by climate changeto small island states, and coastal and other nationsof the Asia Pacic region. In 1994, the countryratied the United Nations Framework Convention onClimate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol

in 2003. It was one of the rst countries to complete aNational Action Plan on Climate Change.

In the wake of Typhoons Ketsana and Parma, thegovernment signed the Climate Change Act intolaw, which created the Climate Change Commission(CCC) and which established the Commissionstwo-fold mandate: mainstream climate change in thegovernments planning processes, and coordinateand lead the formulation of the countrys responseto climate change. This includes leadership over theformulation of Philippine negotiating positions withregard to the UN Framework Convention on Climate

Change talks. The National Framework Strategy onClimate Change had been signed and approved,while the National Climate Change Action Plan

(NCCAP) is already nished. The process relatedto the Local Climate Change Action Plan (LCCAP)commenced on July 25, 2010.

While climate governance has gathered pace,nancing priority projects has not been similarlyup-to-speed. In fact, there is chaos in the waythe currently available funding is governed andadministered.

Climate change nancing in the Philippines largely

comes from a mix of sourcesbilateral, multilateral,NGO and private sources. Of the total funding foradaptation, USD438.6 m is provided by bilateralsources while USD198.76 m comes from multilateralsources. NGOs, private sector groups (includingfoundations) and the Global Environmental Facility(GEF) account for a combined USD319 m fund foradaptation.107

Multilateral climate-change funds are often tiedloans or donor-driven, and that decision-making istop-down. Supported projects lack transformationalpotential for example the development of clean

coal in contrast to the authentically renewable energysources a developing country like the Philippinesneeds to have.


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The well-being of the household is always the domainof women. For the women in Ibuan, a community whichis predominantly from the Manobo and Mamanwa

indigenous cultural communities, this translates tofood security, health, and sanitation. Located some 17kilometers away from the highway and accessible onlyvia an abandoned logging road, Ibuan has little accessto health services, limited only to semi-annual visits bythe doctors and nurses from the LGU.

Excessive rains, causing landslides, make the roadimpassable, limiting access to food as well. This alsomeans difculty in transporting their produce to market,affecting their household income.

Ibuan subsists mainly on camote or sweet potato. Butthe women say that rains are becoming heavier and

temperatures hotter, so most of the camote becomesrotten and cannot be consumed. Despite these trials,the women of Ibuan have struggled to secure even thebasic needs of their families. While they play an activerole in marketing the households agricultural produce,

Over the period 19922018, a total USD2.179 bn hasbeen funneled to, or will be coming down the pipelineinto, the country. Of this, USD956m was earmarkedfor adaptation and USD1.128 bn for mitigationprojects. Some USD2.42m was allocated to aid/reliefand USD92m for both adaptation and aid/relief.

Over half (54.1 percent) of climate-change nancing

has been earmarked for mitigation which is clearlydisproportionate. Decision makers do not seeclimate-change adaptation as a high priority in thecontext of national development plans. The interestsand expressed needs of peopleespecially therural poor and marginalised groups and women aremissing in the various climate change-related plans,programs and nancing initiatives put forward by thegovernment, international nancial institutions anddonors.

An earlier study of climate-change nancing needsconducted by the Department of Environment and

Natural Resources (DENR) in 2009 revealed thatadaptation projects are funded more by loans thanby grants. Between 1992 and up to 2018, of totalloan funds for direct climate-change mitigation andadaptation amounting to USD1.09 bn, more thanhalf (USD587 m) were, or are scheduled to be, in theform of loans for direct adaptation. Loans for directmitigation comprised a smaller share of USD492m.

Clearly, the so-called adaptation funds are increasingthe countrys already huge external debt, pegged at$55 bn in 2010.

The fact that adaptation funds are predominantly inthe form of loans goes against the very principle ofcompensatory nance, which says that rich countriesmust bear the greater burden for battling the effectsof global warming. It reverses the burden-sharingrole, adding new debts to a poor country severelyaffected by climate change even though it contributedmuch less to the problem.

Climate change nance: Grants and Loans, Mitigation and Adaptation (in USD)

Source: Institute for Climate Change and Sustainable Cities (ICSC)-Oxfam 2010

Source: Rodilyn Abella Bolo, Process Documentation Report, Women@Center Project

there is very little they can do with decreasing yieldseach year due to unpredictable weather patterns.

With the help of Oxfams Women@Center Project, thewomen of Ibuan were able to restore their traditionalpractice ofyuha, a communal way of storing foodfor members of the community for use when food isscarce. They have also embarked on planting duyawor turmeric, which they intercrop with root crops andother vegetables. Duyaw not only provides womenwith income security but herbal medicine as well. Theyuha, which buys up and sells abaca from the farmers,strengthened their livelihoods by cutting out localtraders. Farmers earned 47 pesos (about USD10) perkilo of abaca, compared to the 18 pesos per kilo paid byoutside traders before.

The experience of running the food and health bank alsoincreased the womens self-esteem and condence. Asone women leader said I used to be so quiet in councilmeetings, but now, I stand up and speak my mind.

Yuha tu Banwa: Indigenous women adapting to climate change


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Rising to theChallenge:

A bountifulfuture is possibleHarvesting the low hanging fruits

Eliminating wastage and lossesIn the search for thoroughgoing and far-reaching approaches to complexproblems, it is easy to miss simple solutions available today. For instance, some449,000 tons of rice are lost during harvesting, transhipment and storage peryear. These inefciencies have also unnecessarily increased processing anddistribution costs by 20-30 percent, and logistic costs account for 30-40 percent oftotal marketing costs in developing countries, such as the Philippines.108

Each year at home, a total of 37,000 tons of rice are spoiled, while 336,000 tonsare either classied as leftovers or purposely cooked for animals. In all, 822,000tons of rice are wasted per year at the farm and household levels.109 Yet thisamount of wastage is more than enough to meet the annual rice-consumptionneeds of 7.4 m Filipinos (who subsist on an average of 111.4 kilograms per year),which is virtually all those living below the income subsistence threshold. Whenone counts the leftover and spoiled food in restaurants and other public eatingplaces, the gure would be even more staggering.

Agriculture support systemsCareful use of public expenditure along the supply chain could also do a lot interms of linking food producers to the market. Without a well-developed andmaintained infrastructure and transport system, the cost of moving food suppliesfrom Mindanao to Manila and vice versa makes importing the commodities amore viable proposition. In the past decade, the Philippine government improvedthe transport system (the nautical highway) that facilitated the movement ofpassengers and cargo from Luzon to Mindanao through a roll on-roll off (RORO)terminal system to link the entire country. The poor quality of ports and roads inmany parts has signicantly reduced the benets from the system.

Meanwhile, access of rural households to reliable and cheap electricity directlyaffects agricultural productivity. Access to electricity could boost productivity andtherefore income of agricultural producers.110 Much could be done by supportingoff-grid, decentralised renewable energy options that are not dependent on fossilfuels, including micro- or pico-hydro for electricity, biogas for cooking, solar forlighting or ram pumps for irrigation.111

Credit facilities should be made available to smallholder farmers and small-scaleshers. Over the last two decades, support for agriculture, including sheriesand forestry, has declined, with the share of agricultural loans to total loans goingdown from 9.2 per cent in 1980 to 3.2 per cent in 2006. The share of agriculturalproduction loans to total loans also declined, from 6.99 per cent in 1990 to 0.94per cent in 2006.112

Agricultural research is another area which could improve agriculture output.Most recent estimates found that in 2002, the Philippines invested USD0.46 forevery USD100 of agricultural output. This gure has grown remarkably (by 70

8 |


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(photo: Veejay Villafranca)

percent) compared to what it was in 1991but stilllower than the 2000 averages reported for Asia andthe developing world which were 0.41 and 0.53,respectively.113

The need for a responsible

private sectorPrivate investment is recognized as a critical driverof rural employment and agriculture productivity.However, private investors have also played a centralrole in marginalizing local Filipino communitiesand creating conditions conducive to or actuallytaking part or leading in land grabs. Mining activitiesrepresent the most controversial segment of privateinvestment in rural areas, due to the damagingoperations of extractive activities. 114 Large-scaleagribusiness and various monoculture plantations

are also contributors to the marginalization of poorcommunities, particularly in Mindanao.115

In a number of cases, local communities have hadto give up the land to the private sector since publicinvestment is hard to come by. Invariably, womenand men farmers are reduced to supplying labour,oftentimes on a seasonal basis, at low wages, and

without the social protection they need.

There is a wide range of opportunities for the privatesector to prot from investing in small farming andartisanal sheries, while at the same time upliftingprevailing living conditions among poor householdsand communities. Successful business modelson private investments in agriculture do exist.116Effective government regulation and a more inclusivearrangement between companies and farmers,however, are critical to sustaining such models.

Organizing small farmers and shers empowers them to take part inreducing poverty and in sustaining economic growth in the countryside.


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Safe bets: Smallholderagriculture and sheriesThere is certainly a business case to be made for investingin smallholder agriculture and sheries, not least becauseof its poverty-reducing effects. To do so would be to freethe smallholder producers from the clutches of predatorybusinessmen who are often their only sources of market

information, production inputs and credit. It is not unusualthat through their indebtedness to some unscrupulousbusinessmen, small producers have already pawned theirnext harvest or catch.

By organizing smallholder producers into viable businessunits and affording them the technology and nancingthey need, they have the potential to be vital players inpoverty reduction and sustained economic growth in thecountryside.

There are valid concerns, especially among agribusinessrms, about the capability of smallholder producers to

meet demand on a consistent scale and on time, as wellas statutory standards on health, safety and employmentguarantees. However, these concerns can only be anargument for upscaling the capability of smallholders tomeet the market standards.

Mindanao Fruit Industry Development Council (MinFruit) has32 members comprising of 17 cooperatives, 10 associationsand fruit councils as well as 5 corporations emerging from allsix different regions of Mindanao. MinFruit is an education,advocacy and business service organization. It conductstechnical workshops for its members on pest managementand other good agricultural practices and technology-transfertraining. It has waged a Mindanao-wide mango off-seasonproduction campaign, which hopes to encourage mangofarmers to time their harvest for the off-season months so as toenable exporters to supply their markets throughout the year.

Already, MinFruit has been able to penetrate non-traditionalmarkets for Cavendish bananas in China and Hongkongreaching over USD40m.

It has catalyzed the formation of two grower-based mangomarketing corporations in Mindanao. These corporations willbuy mangoes from their grower-members, consolidate themand sell them directly to exporters, processors and other

buyers. Through these operations, mango growers will cut outunnecessary layers in the marketing chain. It also organizesmarket matching events to bring its members closer to buyers.

Minfruit also has broadened its scope to support growers ofother promising exportable fruits such as durian, lanzones,rambutan, lakatan bananas, pomelo, mangosteen andcalamansi. By uniting small fruit farmers organized intocooperatives with larger private agribusiness rms, Minfruit hasemerged as a pivotal force in ensuring a viable fruit industry.

Mindanao Fruit Industry Development Council

Source: R. Pascual (2009), Increasing Private Sector Investmentsin the Philippines: The Case for Inclusion of Agriculture & FisheriesSmallholder Farmer Producers, page 20

(photo: Veejay Villafranca)

The government needs to regulate

marketing of food products that

are harmful to human health and

the environment, on the one hand,

while encouraging the growth of

food production using sustainable

means, on the other.


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An enlightenedconsumer movementTo become viable, smallholder producers must beable to penetrate the wider markets and here, thekey to providing strong linkages with the consumersrest with the government. Since 1992, the ConsumerAct of the Philippines (R.A. 7394) has been in effect

to protect the interest of the consumer and promotehis general welfare; to establish standards ofconduct for business and industry; and the creationof the National Food Security Council to develop a

comprehensive national food security and food safetyprogram. What is missing is a broad policy thatregulates marketing of food products that are harmfulto human health and the environment, on one hand;while encouraging the growth of food productionusing sustainable means, on the other hand.The Philippines is one of the countries in Asia whichattaches high value to sustainabilitythat is to say

food grown using less resources such as water,fertilizer, pesticide or land to minimise the impact onthe environment. In a ve-country study, Philippinesranked higher than China, India, South Korea, and


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Japan in the proportion of consumers who giveimportance to food that comes from a food producerenrolled in a scientically validated sustainable foodproduction program.117 Companies must heed thecall of consumers for sustainably grown foods. Thegovernment must provide the right political andbusiness incentives to make this happen.

The dividends of peace in MindanaoMindanao is the second largest island in thePhilippines (next to Luzon) with a land area of 10.2million hectares. It represents one third of thenational land mass. In 2007, almost a quarter of thePhilippine population lived in Mindanao.118 Almostone-third of its land area is devoted to agricultureand more than one-third of its labour force is inagriculture, sheries and forestry.119

While there are raging, decades-old armed strugglesin some areas of the Philippines, conicts in

Mindanao are particularly more widespread and moreviolent. The 2005 Philippine Human DevelopmentReport noted that from 1986 to 2004, 15 of the21 provinces with the most number of conictsare in Mindanao.120 Over 40 years of communistinsurgency and the Moro secessionist movementshave claimed the lives of an estimated 120,000people and have displaced about 2 million morecivilians.121

The causality between the conict in Mindanaoand agricultural production and productivity is well-

noted. Capital ight, an aversion against investingin agriculture by affected communities, disruption ofmarkets, and, the consequent drop in the protabilityof crop production are just some of the impacts linkeddirectly and indirectly to the seething conict in theregion. An estimate put the indirect impact of theconict alone to USD10 bn over the course of 1975-2002. 122

Despite the intermittent eruption of violence,Mindanaos economy has shown remarkableresilience as shown by its ability to sustain growththrough episodes of armed conict.123 In fact, in 2009,the growth rate in Mindanao was three times asmuch as the national economy.124 The gure belowshows the signicant contribution of Mindanao to theeconomy.

Growth in Mindanao, however, has been highlyuneven with Region XI (Davao provinces) at theforefront, while the ARRM and CARAGA have always

lagged behind. It is no coincidence that ARMM,CARAGA, and the Zamboanga Peninsula have thehighest incidence of poverty, not just in Mindanao,but in the entire country as well. All provincesconsidered as areas of conict, except Davao delSur, have consistently ranked as poor and poverty inthese provinces has always remained worse than thenational average.

An enduring peace in Mindanao opens up hugepossibilities to uplift the lives of its poor farmers andshers, and thereby increase the countrys overallagricultural productivity.

100%

90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

Figure (Comparison of outputs of selected agricultural products)

Rest of the Philippines

Mindanao

Pala

y

Corn

Coc

onut

Sug

arca

ne

Pine

apple

Ban

ana

M

ango

Coff

ee

M

arine

Fisheries

In

land

Fisheries

Aqu

acult

ure

Source: Bureau of Agricultural Statistics [BAS] (2011) Selected Statistics on Agriculture 2011.


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The time forchange is now:what must be doneBenigno Aquino III captured the presidency by riding on the crest of strong publicopinion against years of mal-development, widespread corruption and distorted publicpolicies. Hopes are high that the vicious cycle of poverty will nally come to an end.

President Aquino promises inclusive growth through a more transparent andaccountable government. How exactly this will be achieved is spelled out partiallyin the Philippine Development Plan 2011-2016, an amalgam of social developmentstrategies and economic and political reforms designed to alleviate poverty and propup the economy.

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A number of reform-seeking women and men, manypreviously active in the civil society organizationmovement, occupy key positions in the Aquinoadministration. Many are optimistic that policy gainsin recent years will nally nd substance in the formof budget commitments and that social developmentproposals in the pipeline will now move morespeedily.

Against this backdrop, it is vital to take advantageof the reform momentum in the executive and tosustain the dialogue among national agencies withcivil society groups, communities and the privatesector. Both are prerequisites to crafting moreeffective policies, programs, and practices that inturn will ensure better management of land andwater resources -- the predicates of food justice. Theeffort to manage land, water and climate change is ashared one.

An agenda that prepares communities for the climate

crisis, and which will reenergize and revitalizethe farm and sheries sectors, must start with thefollowing:

Policies and programs that promote sustainablelivelihoods and climate resilient communitiesshould be prioritized and pursued. Congressshould pass a law on land and water use thatprotects the nations food sources both in the farmsand in the shing grounds. It should stop landconversion, especially in areas that are criticalfor food production. Existing legislation should bereviewed in order to secure the needs of women

smallholders, as well as the demands of sustainablefarming and shing. Government agencies andtheir respective mandates need to be rationalizedand aligned for the purpose of achieving food self-sufciency.

Public spending for agriculture -- on a scale thatwill meet the demands of climate adaptationand food self sufciency-- should increase.Landmark legislation such as the Peoples SurvivalFund (PSF) bill, which seeks to incentivize earlyclimate change adaptation action by establishingappropriate, adequate and predictable sources offunds that can be accessed by local governmentunits and communities, needs to be passed urgently.National budgetary allocations for sustainableagriculture should be increased. The governmentshould invest heavily on rehabilitating overshedareas. Government should introduce a raft of socialprotection programs to ensure vulnerable sectorsare shielded from economic and climate-relatedvolatilities.

Private sector investment that can build theresilience of rural livelihoods and contributeto social development must be encouraged.Standards for responsible private sector investments

and operations need to be in place to govern thegovernments public-private sector partnership(PPP) agenda and to dene the scope and role ofthe private sector in the governments adaptationagenda. One area where private sector expertiseand resources will be most needed is in the area ofdeveloping Philippine risk sharing mechanisms andweather index insurance-based initiatives for farmers

and sherfolk.

A more coherent national agenda that increasesthe competitiveness of the Philippine agriculturesector and which mitigates the vagaries andvolatilities of the international commoditiesmarket and the adverse impacts of internationaltrading regimes needs to be agreed. ThePhilippines needs a blueprint for trade anddevelopment, which places the empowerment ofsmall farming shareholders at the centre of thegovernments development strategy. Anti-smugglingand anti-trust bills need to be passed urgently.

Equally important is the jumpstarting of a processthat will review all trade agreements entered into bythe government or are currently under negotiation. Inthe context of the climate crisis and the price volatilityof agricultural products, it is critical to review tariffschedules and to align trade ambitions with projectedclimate change impacts on the Philippines.The creation of the Philippine Trade RepresentativeOfce (PTRO) will ensure coherence in ourbilateral and multilateral trade negotiations sothat international trading will aid, not hamper, thedevelopment of our domestic food production.

Womens contributions to agriculture productionshould be strengthened and supported. Thegovernment needs to increase womens accessto extension services, credit and social protectionmeasures. Womens participation in policy-makingprocesses should be institutionalized.

Consumers, smallholder producers, developmentNGOs, and social movements should amplifytheir calls for safe, adequate, and sustainably-grown food. The government needs to provide theright incentive and the regulatory environment for theprivate sector to be able to heed this call.

IN THE LAST 5 years, the world has lived throughdevastating shocks. In 2008, 100 million morepeople went hungry because of the global food pricehike. In the last few years, we have also seen theworst weather-related disasters in historythe worstdroughts, the most devastating typhoons, tsunamisand hurricanes ever recorded.

The domestic food system is near breaking point.There is still time to change course but the windowfor action is rapidly closing. Taking action now willhelp secure a bountiful future where Filipinos willhave enough food on the table, particularly Filipinofarming communities.


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1 J. Watts (2008), From producers toconsumers: how rice farmers facecatastrophe, the Guardian, 28 May

2 G. Cabacungan (2008), P75-B

economic stimulus fund sought,Philippine Daily Inquirer, 28January.

3 Food and Agriculture Organization,Crop Prospects and Food Situation- No.3 July 2008. http://www.fao.org/docrep/010/ai470e

oxfam weathering the crises, feeding the future

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