THIS paper reported last week two negative stories about the much-ballyhooed free trade agreements (FTAs).
One such story was about the undesirable effect of the FTAs on our once-thriving potato plantations in Kapatagan, Digos City and Marilog, Davao City. It seems that the local market is being flooded with cheap low-tariff potatoes from China, thereby forcing consumers to shun locally-produced potatoes which cost more.
The onset of bacterial wilt a soil-borne disease which has destroyed potato crops has exacerbated the problem of potato farmers. Unable to control bacterial wilt, many of them have opted to plant bananas instead of potatoes to survive.
Another story that does not bode well for Philippine agriculture is the reverse of the potato problem. Undersecretary Merle Cruz of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) reported that major exporting areas in the Philippines like the Davao region have not availed of the advantages of FTAs with other countries.
It appears that the farmers or exporters who need to take full advantage of the FTAs are not fully aware or informed of the benefits they can derive from such agreements. Another problem, a perennial one, is the usual inability of local producers to come up with the volume demanded by foreign importers. Finally, many Philippine products which attract the interest of foreign buyers usually fail to make the grade in terms of quality demanded by them.
The poor, suffering farmers naturally expect the national government to help them in their dire strait, and logically so, because it has the wherewithal to do it. Let’s hope to the heavens that the increasingly fumbling and slow-footed Aquino Administration can provide this assistance.
