[Music] [Laughter] in this presentation i will provide a brief overview of the state of agricultural development in the philippines agriculture is no longer the big economic mover it once was but it is still the key to enabling economic progress not just for a few but for everybody in 2018 the share of the poor in the population was down to 17 but for farmers the share was still 32 among fisher folk 26 eliminating poverty requires a higher standard of living for households who depend on agriculture over a quarter of the workers in the country were employed in agriculture in april 2020 but the sector produces only nine percent of gdp in that year a lot of workers end up producing just a small part of economic output meaning they are less productive compared with their counterparts in industry and services agriculture is also important for ensuring our country's food security local farms and fisheries are the source of most of the food needs of filipinos the country is completely self-sufficient in cassava sweet potato milkfish and tilapia and nearly so for galunggong and despite the recent controversy over rice and pork imports more than nine tenths of rice and corn we eat is produced locally eighty to ninety percent of the meat we eat is produced here now based on how fast agricultural output is growing philippine agriculture has fallen behind those of other countries philippine agriculture was actually doing well back in the 60s and 70s new technologies at that time were spreading like the green revolution seeds that time also agribusiness investments were expanding rapidly in now key export crops like sugarcane bananas and pineapple but agricultural growth slowed in the 1980s recovered somewhat in the 90s and 2000s before slumping again in the 2010s within agriculture it's poultry which has grown faster than average up to at least 2019. for crops the growth rate is actually below average one reason is lack of diversification it is the same five traditional crops ally corn coconut sugar cane and banana that have dominated cropped area over the past 50 years meanwhile the non-traditional crops also known as high value crops for good reason because they earn higher value per hectare than the traditional crops these are the soys the cacaos the abacas the vegetables as a whole they have remained minor players in agriculture fisheries meanwhile worse than crops its output has been falling every year almost from 2013 to 2018. climate factors have contributed to the erratic trend in both crops and fisheries for fisheries there is an additional problem of decades of overfishing environmental factors and a dwindling natural resource base make farming and fishing risky and activities livestock is not exempt from this as african swine failure since 2019 has destroyed big inventories and cost skyrocketing pork practice agriculture has mostly failed to capitalize on a lucrative export market in contrast our southeast asian neighbors have made agriculture their export winner even in 1997 agricultural exports in the philippines was already behind at 2.3 billion dollars the 3 billion dollars of vietnam the 8 billion of indonesia 13 billion of thailand these three countries still propelled their exports to greater heights by 2017 vietnam was now at 30 billion indonesia and thailand at 30 to 40 billion dollars per year philippines made it to seven billion is this poor's performance a result of low spending by government let's look at the numbers in 2018 spending for agriculture by government was 143 billion pesos equivalent to about nine percent of agricultural output this is even higher than the seven percent share in 2017 spending for agriculture rose further 247 billion in 2020 before leveling off 243 billion in 2021 however despite years of high and rising budgets for agriculture government programs have little to show for in terms of concrete outcomes but the country continues to fall behind its neighbors in infrastructure investments the country ranks 60th out of 160 countries in the logistics performance index of the world bank in 2019 the physical land area of the country is large at 12 million hectares but it is also limited as population continues to grow that means farm sizes have been shrinking by 2012 farm sizes averaged only 1.29 hectares our fragmented farms have limited our farmers incomes on the bright side ra 11321 or the sagipsaca act promotes farmer and fisherfolk enterprises and offers a pathway towards clustering consolidation and partnership with private sector consistent with this da has identified clustering as its highest priority program this attention to clustering by da is strongly championed by its current secretary as part of the new thinking for leveling up agriculture the new thinking is organized around eight paradigms the eight paradigms are modernization with the latest technologies such as sensor driven pest surveillance [Music] industrialization by building agribusiness out of traditional farming such as cobra farmers forming a vco factory [Music] consolidation to realize economy scale such as the block farms in sugar cane areas aggressive development of infrastructure to plug logistical gaps development of road maps to operationalize strategies and partnerships budget to fund appropriate public sector priorities and lastly legislative support towards policy reforms these paradigms offer great promise towards remedying the gaps in programs and policies that have failed agriculture for so long cooperatives will clearly play a critical role in this leveling up cooperatives will facilitate consolidation to realize economies of scale promote the spread of modern technologies pioneer partnerships with the private sector towards transforming farming into agribusiness in short collective action normally associated with political mobilization through cooperatives can now be potently harnessed for creating economic value at the level of small farmers and fisher folk brick and mortar retail is giving way to e-commerce which is now also penetrating agriculture the keys for farmer and fisher folk enterprises to take advantage of the digital revolution is functional organizations and effective partnerships with the private sector who can specialize in providing services developing infrastructure such as farmer-based e-platforms and in building capacity these new developments especially the new thinking in agriculture is an opportunity for cooperatives to be at the front and center for agricultural development in the philippines are you up to [Music] you