by Alex Roldan
The abaca industry during the past decades has been on a downhill since the discovery of nylon and plastics in the latter part of the 20th century. The industry survived albeit declining production volume and deteriorating quality.
I’m glad to hear that the Fiber Industry Development Authority continues to spread the word on the huge potentials of this crop. During the Abaca Production Seminar held recently at the Mindanao Baptist Rural Life Center in Bansalan, Davao del Sur, the Engr. Ramon Brazuela, FIDA director for Southern Mindanao, urged farmers to continue to “learn not only how to plant abaca, but also how to make it profitable by value adding.”
This 76 million dollar industry supports more than 70 thousand farmers throughout the country. But sad to say, expansion of areas planted to abaca has not significantly improved despite all efforts.
Abaca is not only used as rope (which is regaining popularity because of environmental issues against nylon), it is likewise used in the production of a wide variety of specialty papers requiring high strength, including paper currency. Aside from those, there are other potentials of the plant. The abaca enzymes are now used in organic-based cosmetic products and even beauty creams. Meaning, the potential is huge.
But, despite the promise of a looming boom in the industry, the true situation of most abaca farmers should be cause for concern. Meeting abaca farmers in person tells a different story. If you listen to the public service programs aired over local radio in Davao City, you will hear different voices of young men and women from various provinces of the Davao region calling to their families back home informing them that they (callers) had arrived “safely” in the Big City or that they had found jobs (read that “menial” work as house helpers. Being into radio work, I later discovered a good number of the callers are actually children of abaca farmers from the towns of Sta. Maria and Malita in Davao del Sur.
When asked why they had decided to come to the city and work as house helpers instead of helping tend the family farm, the standard reply was that abaca farming these days has fallen into bad times and they had to look elsewhere for work in order to survive. I would give them an on the spot lecture on the potentials of the crop if managed properly, hoping that it would miraculously change their minds and consider returning to their provinces.
Instead, they almost blew me away by their replies. “Nobody buys abaca anymore these days,” they would invariably say. I had to find out why by asking local traders what had happened to the industry. I was told that demand for the product was at an all time low. Abaca farmers who brought their product to the city at great expense (usually borrowed money) couldn’t find any buyer, unless they had to sell at a loss.
Nobody can deny the tremendous potentials of abaca, given the fact that the issue of climate change is at the fore, and there is a rush to search for alternative biodegradable products. But the promise of good times ahead for abaca farmers/traders, thanks to climate change, is a long, long way in the future.
The Philippines’ glory days as the leading producer of the once popular “Manila hemp” are in the past, but there is a future, definitely, if only the government can play an active role in finding ways and means of developing alternative uses for abaca One way is for government to invest in research and development. Value adding strategy should involve private investment in products that use abaca as raw materials, since farmers cannot lead in market development. This is not about which comes first, the chicken or the egg. Farmers cannot start producing the crop in order to develop the market. It is simply silly to let the farmers invest on a mere promise of good market opportunities that nobody knows when it will come.
Subsistence farming survives on instinct and what they see as opportunities at hand. All the abaca farmers need now are buyers and good prices for their products before they will decide shifting to other crops.
For comments, e-mail to roldanalex@yahoo.com
