Farmers to City Mayor: Investigate local NFA rice warehouses and distribute rice to poor

August 5, 2010 | DavaoCity---Militant farmers group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas- Southern Mindanao Region (KMP-SMR) urged city mayor Inday Sara Duterte to order the investigation of NFA storage houses in the city to avoid the wastage of thousand tons of rice, and in the context of its recent pronouncement of bringing genuine upland development--specifically to farmers who are producers and consumers of rice.

“We ask the city administration to act prudently in dealing with the reported oversupply and rotting of rice in NFA warehouses. Distribute the oversupply of rice for free to poor Davaoenos or sell the stocks at a much lower price. To allow the million tons of rice stocks to rot in NFA warehouses would be a much greater crime against the people,” urged Pedro Arnado, KMP-SMR Chairperson and Anakpawis regional coordinator.

Arnado said that locally, rice  prices have been up by P4 since the beginning of the year allegedly due to the impact of El Nino and the worsening state of agriculture here and in the rest of the country.

Arnado then said that with the oversupply of rice, it is highly questionable why rice prices have steadily gone up in the last months of Mrs. Arroyo’s term.

KMP then urged the city and the national government to lower the price of rice to augment the food purchase capacity of the poor.

Arnado added further that the present administration and the newly elected leaders must respond to the worsening condition of farmers and the declining state of the agricultural sector.

The leader described the exploitation and suffering of Filipino farmers which is a major factor that has given way for the crippling of the agricultural industry. He said that in many areas in Mindanao, the feudal and exploitative relationship between landlords and farmers continues.

“In many areas, the 70 – 30 rule in favor of the landlord still applies. Of the 30% that goes to farmers, 10% goes to usurers while 60% is spent on the fertilizers, leaving farmers who are the supposed ‘foodmakers’ of the country, the hungriest, most food-deprived sector, ” Arnado lamented.

Meanwhile, Arnado said the city mayor’s plan for upland development is a move that farmers would gladly welcome if it were implemented within the context of real land distribution and subsidy to local farmers, and not as a token measure to solve the so-called insurgency.

Referring to Aquino’s SONA, Arnado also said that the administration’s promises are bound to be tested especially in addressing problems on the nation’s rice self-sufficiency, which is just a part of the country’s bigger problem on agriculture.

“The foodlessness and poverty of the Filipino people is so massive and its causes are deeply rooted. Only genuine land reform can reverse the negative impacts that the agrarian program, CARP, has created in its more than 20 - year existence,” said Arnado.

KMP has previously urged long-term solutions to the Aquino administration such as the scrapping of the CARP Extension with Reforms Law. The group challenged the Aquino administration to support instead for the enactment of Anakpawis Partylist’s proposed Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill (GARB) or HB 3059. This bill seeks to implement free land distribution to tillers within 5 years and to relieve farmers from indebtedness to government banks.  #