Biz leaders push integrated agri-food sector policy

By Dolly Yasa

BACOLOD CITY – Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry Chief Executive Officer Frank Carbon emphasized the need for the country to implement an Integrated Agricultural Food Sector Development Policy.

He said this policy should encompass farm food production, processing/food manufacturing, delivery systems, logistics, and storage.

Carbon further explained that the President’s economic advisers should include this sector in the national plan for the next four years and beyond.

“We had sugar farms with plantation sizes ranging from 200 to 1,000 hectares for economies of scale, enhancing farming efficiency and profitability,” he pointed out.

Carbon noted that, historically, “we had a railway system/logistics for the efficient transport of sugarcane to mills.”

He added that there were milling districts to ensure each sugar mill had enough cane to operate profitably and resources for continuous upgrading of the mill machinery.

“We also had the quedan system for efficient marketing and supporting the farm and mill financing scheme,” Carbon said. “It’s a comprehensive economic system.”

Carbon added, “That’s why the hacienderos prefer to be called ‘planters,’ not ‘farmers,’ and use titles like Dons and Doñas, nyorito, and nyoritas.”

He recounted that during former President Ferdinand Marcos’s term, the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) was introduced, which led to the decline of the railway and mill district system.

“The head of misery began to appear, and since misery loves company, the National Sugar Trading and the Philippine Sugar Commission came to dominate the industry,” he added. “You know the rest of the story.”

Carbon emphasized that for food security, the Department of Agriculture could learn from the past and present sugar industry.

He proposed that the Department of Agriculture develop an Agri/Food Sector that integrates farm production, processing/manufacturing (value-adding processes), and storage and distribution.

He stressed that the AgriFood sector sustained the ASEAN economy during the COVID-19 years and continues to do so today.

“Visit Vietnam and Thailand,” Carbon said, “their AgriFood Sector is a main contributor to their soaring economic growth.”