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p
rices.html

ednesday, June 08, 2005

NORTH Cotabato Governor Emmanuel Piñol is asking the Department of Agriculture (DA) to
check on the rising prices of fertilizers in the country.

In an interview here in Davao City last week, Piñol said he recently passed a resolution before the
League of the Provinces of the Philippines (LPP) regarding such that he said, the LPP adopted.

The governor said the high prices of fertilizer here in the Philippines made the farmers suffer
more with less profit.

"Farming has become unprofitable for the farmers," Piñol said.

He said a sack of urea outside the country sells as P350 while here in the Philippines it's sold at
P950 per sack.

Piñol said due to this the income of farmers had decreased considerably.

On the other hand, the governor is also asking the DA to re-assess the allocation of the
agriculture budget on rice and corn production.

It was learned that 50 percent of the DA budget goes to rice and corn production.

Piñol said it's high time for the DA to look into the potential of other high-value crops and give
them enough budget as well to improve their production.

"Dapat bigyang pansin din nila yung ibang high-value crops like the rubber, banana and fruits,"
Piñol said.

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Published May 2 2008 by Energy Bulletin

Fertilizers - May 2
by Staff

Click on the headline (link) for the full text.

Many more articles are available through the Energy Bulletin homepage

up.
(30 April 2008)
 ealers Prices of Fertilizers (Monthly/Annual), 1990-2008
Annual
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 20
990 991 992 993 994 995 996 997 998 999 000 001 002 003 004 005 006 007 08
Philip
pines
Urea 2 3 3 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 4 4 5 7 9 8 9
(45-0- 56. 64. 12. 68. 82. 63. 88. 65. 79. 40. 66. 36. 30. 37. 28. 05. 99. 54. .
0) 09 60 81 60 67 88 72 64 75 73 53 34 52 90 22 38 64 61
[..] Data not available
[...] Data not yet available Data based on BAS Weekly Cereals and Fertilizer Price
Monitoring (WCFPM) covering 5 dealer-respondents per province Latest update: 2008-
07-09 14:00 Source: Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS) Contact: [email protected]
Unit: [ peso per sack of 50 kilograms] Matrix: FRPRF101

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P faces corn shortage

Barely recovering from a rice crisis, the country faces a major corn shortage that could
cause a domestic shortfall in meat products and force the closure of firms involved in the
livestock and poultry industry.

In a consultative meeting Thursday on the commercialization of organic and microbial

If the national production of corn does not meet the 7.9-million metric ton target for this
year, the country may have to import the grain. This option poses problems, since corn is
in short supply worldwide because it is a major biofuel crop.

“The [corn production] gains in the first quarter is significant, but worldwide, we could
not find corn supplies. Corn is very expensive, and it is also used as biofuel [feedstock],”
Araullo explained to journalists during a meeting in Quezon City.

The Department of Agriculture has declared a no-corn importation policy for this year,
even if about 120,000 metric tons of corn were imported in 2008.

Araullo said a corn shortage will badly hit the domestic livestock and poultry industry,
possibly forcing the closure of many firms in that industry.

If that is not enough, people who eat white corn in place of rice will also be affected, and
might switch back to eating rice. Based on estimates of local food experts, up to 15
million Filipinos are eating white corn instead of white rice.

Problem with fertilizers

Araullo blamed the high prices of inorganic or chemical fertilizers for farmers wanting to
give up or to cut back on corn production.

During the consultative meeting, Dr. Norlito Gicana, the executive director of the
Fertilizers and Pesticides Authority, disclosed that a bag of urea now costs between
P1,800 to P1,900 per bag, and that the increasing prices of crude oil in the world market
are to blame. As of April, one bag of urea costs about P1,200. Most inorganic fertilizers
are made from crude oil.

Because of the high prices of inorganic fertilizers, the Department of Agriculture through
its various agencies, such as the Bureau of Soils and Water Management, wants more
farmers to start using organic and microbial fertilizers, while cutting down on the
quantity of chemical inputs.

“Organic fertilizers cannot totally replace inorganic fertilizers, but the good quality of
organic fertilizers should be in order,” Gicana said.

Self-sufficiency target

This year, the corn production target is 7.37 million metric tons, which is about 9 percent
higher compared to the 6.74-million metric tons production in 2007.

Araullo said the 7.37-million metric ton target translates to a corn self-sufficiency level of
94 percent. The Agriculture department is aiming for 100-percent corn sufficiency in
2009 or 2010. About 2.7 million hectares of lands are planted to corn.

The first-quarter production of corn hit 1.99 million metric tons. The figures for the
second quarter are not yet available.

Importing more corn would be very expensive for the Philippines, since its price is P13 to
P14 per kilo.

In the US, the price is about P15 and in Argentina, P15.60, excluding freight cost, which
is about $125 per metric ton.

Because of the possible major corn shortage, Gicana said the Agriculture department will
set talks with the Land Bank of the Philippines to provide financing for corn farming and
the production of organic fertilizers.

“We’ll try to talk with LandBank on how they can help in corn and organic fertilizers,” he
added.

Another option is to provide subsidy coupons for fertilizers to corn farmers. Rice growers
have been availing of subsidy coupons for rice.

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8&p=price+of+fertilizers+in+the+philippines&sado=1&fr=ytff1-
&u=www.fertilizer.org/ifa/publicat/PDF/2002_singapore_cipriano.pdf&w=price+prices+
fertilizers+fertilizer+philippines&d=ftp96C72Q-FB&icp=1&.intl=us

“Recent agricultural and fertilizer developments in the Philippines ”

Grains of Truth
Food Producers Suffer Hunger, Poverty

“Kawitang palakol” and “gawat” are terms that refer to times when food is scarce, usually
the weeks before harvest season when the farmers have spent all their money on
fertilizers and pesticides and harvest time is still far away. The considerable increases in
the prices of farm inputs and terribly low price of palay ((unmilled rice) have however
made the whole year a period of “gawat” for the Filipino farmers.

BY DABET CASTAÑEDA
Bulatlat

Celestino Ariel, 60, started farming at the age of 18. His family is a tenant, tilling a three-hectare farm in
Barangay (village) San Roque, Naic in Cavite province, 39 kms south of Manila.

To work their land, Mang Celestino borrowed P12,000 (US$214.29 at US$1=PhP56) from a local money
lender. The contract he signed stated he should pay one cavan of palay per P1,000 he borrowed in addition
to the whole amount loaned.

The amount he borrowed however was barely enough to shoulder all expenses: farm inputs at P6,230, labor
cost from planting to harvesting at P 4,575, and rental of farm equipment at P1,500 – totaling P12,305.

When harvest season came, Mang Celestino’s one hectare reaped a total of 80 sacks of palay. He used the
10 cavans to pay the thresher operator and another 15 cavans to pay the farm workers who helped harvest
his products. He also paid P200 to the neighbors who helped him carry the products home (hakot).

Less the 12 cavans he needed to give to the moneylender in addition to the P 12,000 he borrowed, Mang
Celestino was left with exactly 33 cavans.

However, because of the very low farm gate price – P7 per kilo or P175 at 25 kilos per cavan – he was left
with only a total of P7,525. He was P4,475 short for his P12,000 loan.
Mang Celestino said he had to borrow money from his 80-year-old mother, Maria, to add to his loan
payment.

Landlessness

Mira Luna Varon, 50, a widow with four children, is a former settler in the uplands of western Tarlac, 109
kms north of Manila. Her family used to till six hectares of land. In an interview with Bulatlat, Aling Mira
said she and her neighbors were given a stewardship of the land they occupied by the local government in
1990. Harvests then were good because they had enough land to till, she said.

In 1998, Aling Mira said the provincial government under Gov. Arturo Yap took around 200 hectares of
land in the mountains, including Aling Mira’s. Aling Mira and her family were then driven out to look for
land to till in the lowlands. Aling Mira found a hectare of idle land which, after being cleared of tall
grasses, has served as her family’s source of livelihood and where their new home stands.

All of Aling Mira’s children have graduated from high school and as much as she wants to send them to
college, they are now all tied up in farm production. “Wala rin akong pera na ipampapa-aral sa kanila” (I
have no money to send them to school), she said.

The fear of being evicted again from the land they are tilling is very intense for the family since they do not
have a land title. “Wala kaming kasiguruhan dito” (We have no security here), she said.

Meanwhile, not far from Aling Mira’s land is the land being tilled by Bella Reyla. Aling Bella is tilling a
hectare of land owned by Paulino Rela, a small landowner who owns eight hectares of farmland.

Their landlord-tenant relationship is what they call buwisan: the landowner gets 25 percent of the total
production while the tiller gets 75 percent but shoulders all the production cost.

Aling Mira and Aling Bella are not alone in their plight. Research by the Kilusang Magbubukid sa Pilipinas
(KMP or Philippine Peasant Movement) shows that 70 percent of farmers nationwide are landless.

Backward agriculture

Agricultural production in the Philippines remains agonizingly backward to this day. Although big
agriculture-based corporations – such as canned pineapple producer Dole-Philippines in Cagayan de Oro,
southern Philippines or the sugar producer Hacienda Luisita Incorporated in Tarlac – use high-tech
machinery for their farm production and harvesting, the lowly Filipino farmers continue to make do with
the age-old plow and slow-paced carabao.

To prepare the land for planting, farmers have to rent hand tractor, at the following rates:

Table 1
Cost of Hand Tractor Rental
Province Rental Cost per
Hectare
Cagayan Valley P 1,200
Tarlac P 1,500
Nueva Ecija P 2,000
Cavite P 1,500
Meanwhile, harvesting is still done by hand, using hand-held sickle. Later, the palay grains are spread on
cemented ground and dried slowly under the sun.

High cost of farm inputs

Eligio Macagba, 66, owns more than three hectares of land in Barangay San Luis, Roxas in Isabela
province. As an agrarian reform beneficiary, he paid the government P3,070 a year for 15 years, from 1974
to 1989, after which he was given a land title.

Although he owns the land he tills, Mang Eligio, in an interview with Bulatlat, still complained of the high
price of farm inputs.

His expenses last planting season included: hybrid seeds at P 1,200 per sack and used two sacks per hectare
for a total of P7,200; urea fertilizer at P820 per sack and used two sacks per hectare or a total of P 4,920;
and 16-20-0 fertilizer at P800 per sack and used three sacks per hectare for a total of P7,200.
He also had to use two kinds of pesticides: three quarts of herbicide per hectare at P400 per quart or a total
of P3,600 and three quarts per hectare of the pesticide to protect the ricefield from kuhol at P1,000 per quart
or a total of P9,000.

Mang Eligio also paid 10 seasonal farm workers P1,000 per hectare or a total of P3,000 for planting and
another P2,880 per hectare for eight farm workers for bunot-punla (harvesting) or a total of P8,640.

For his three hectares of land, Mang Eligio shelled out a total of P43,560 for farm inputs and farm workers’
wages.

These costs however vary from province to province. (See table 2).

Table 2
Cost of Farm Inputs and Wage of Planters per Hectare
Province Seeds Fertilizers Pesticides Wage Total Cost
of Planters
(Mananananim)
Cagayan P 1,200 P 1,620 P 1,400 P 2,700 P 6,920
Valley
Tarlac P 1,500 P 4,400 P 1,790 P 1,800 P 9,490
Nueva P 1,600 P 14,340 P 2,280 NA P 18,220
Ecija
Cavite P 2,000 P 1,440 P 1,350 P 2,000 P 6,230
Note: Rate cost for Nueva Ecija was based on planting by sabog. Regular rate for planters is P 1,600 to P
2,000.

According to Joseph Canlas, chair of the Alyansa ng mga Magbubukid sa Gitnang Luzon (AMGL or
Alliance of Peasants in Central Luzon), the price of fertilizers has doubled this year as compared to last
year making lives more miserable for small farmers. From P420 per sack, the price of urea has reached
P850. Another fertilizer, the 141414 or triple katorse today cost P675 per sack from P375 last year.

Table 3
Cost of production per hectare during harvest time
Province Thresher Hakot Product Share of Total Cost
Seasonal Farmers
(Manggagapas)
Cagayan 5 cavans (P8 per P150 Ika-13 (11 cvns in 150 P 3,350
Valley kl x 25 kls per cvn cvns per ha) (P8 per kl
x 5 cvns = P1,000) x 25 kls per cvn x 11
cvns = P2,200)
 Tarlac 10 cavans (P7.80 P 500 NA
per kl x 25 kls per
cvn x 10 cvns =
P1,950)
Nueva 7 cavans (P7.50 P 1,500Ika-10 (10 cvns in 100 P 4,687.50
Ecija per kl x 25 kls per cvns per ha) (P7.50 per
cvn x 7 cvns = kl x 25 kls per cvn x
P1,312.50) 10 cvns = P1,875)
Cavite 10 cavans P200 Ika-6 (5 cvns in 100 80 P 4,575
cvns per ha)
(P7 per kl x 25 kls
per cvn x 10 cvns (P7 per kl x 25 kls per
= P1,750) cvn x 15 cvns =
P2,625)

Struggling for survival

Last Oct. 20, some 1,500 farmers from Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon and Southern Tagalog trooped to
Manila to voice their plight. They held what they called a “street conference” in front of the Department of
Agriculture’s main gate in Quezon City.

The farmers had declared a two-day farm strike to decry their worsening situation. Their demand: an
increase in palay’s farm gate price which now ranges from P7 to P10 a kilo. The farmers are seeking that it
be raised to P15 per kilo.

If the peasants’ demand is met, Mang Celestino would get a gross income of P 16,125. “Makakabayad ako
sa utang at may matitira pang pera kahit konti” (I can pay my debts and there could be something left), he
said.

But given that a family of six in Region II where Mang Celestino’s province is located needs an average of
P455 a day or P13,650 a month to survive, whatever extra he would have left after paying off his debts
would still never be enough for his family to live on, until the next harvest season.

Table 4
Farm Gate Price
Province Farm Gate Price of Palay
Cagayan Valley P6.80 to P8
Tarlac P7.80 to P9.50
Nueva Ecija P7.50
Cavite P7.00

The KMP in a statement said that the price of palay has remained the same since 1990.

KMP secretary-general Danilo Ramos, himself a peasant from Bulacan, 40 kms south of Manila, suggested
that the government, through the National Food Authority (NFA), should increase its procurement of
locally-produced rice to 25 percent from its mandated 10 percent.

“The government should buy more of the farmers’ produce so they would not be forced to sell to
unscrupulous traders,” he said.
The peasant leader added that in the past few years, the NFA only buys one percent of the total amount of
locally produced rice. He said this is due to the Arroyo government’s policy of trade liberalization that
allows the entry of foreign produced rice that cost lower at the world market.

The government’s policy stated that the liberalization of the rice industry would make the cost of rice
cheaper in the local market.

On the contrary, Ramos said that there has been a 100 to 300 percent average increase in the price of rice
since 1994 when the country entered the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and, a year later,
the World Trade Organization (WTO).

KMP statistics show that in 1994, NFA rice cost P8.44 a kilo; ordinary rice is P8.86 and special rice is
P9.50. Today, NFA rice already cost P16 a kilo; ordinary rice is priced from P17 to P18 while special rice
varies from P20 to P28.

But while the local market price of rice has increased by 100 to 300 percent in 16 years, the farm gate price
of palay is nailed down to its price since 1990.

“Nagsusumikap kami pero wala naman kaming napapala” (We’re working very hard but we get nothing),
said Aling Mira adding that she and thousands of farmers like her hope that the government will listen and
take action to their demand of raising the farm gate price of palay. “Sana unawain kaming mga mahihirap”
(They should listen to us), she said adding that it has been decades that they feel the pain of the irony that
the primary food producers in the country are the ones who are left hungry and poor. Bulatlat

Table 5
Types of Usury
Province Rate of Interest per loan
Cagayan Valley 30 percent of total loan
Tarlac 30 percent of total loan
Nueva Ecija 1 cavan per P 1,000-loan
Cavite 1 cavan per P 1,000-loan
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