The sector's contribution to GDP has since been decreasing from 12.7% in 2010 to 9.3% in 2018 (World Bank 2020b); nevertheless, it continues to be the source of livelihood for nearly a third of the country's workforce. The disruption of the food supply chain also contributed to food shortages and widespread hunger, especially in the urban centers. This paper studies Philippine agriculture in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on the following: (1) the sector's vulnerability to supply chain disruptions; (2) government crisis management programs in place and how these compare with those in other developing Asian economies; and (3) prospects for restarting the fragile Philippine agriculture towards the development of resilient agricultural and food systems.
Half of the Philippine population is categorized as rural/agricultural communities, and the agricultural sector "employs approximately 30% of the country's workforce" (Llanto 2016, 17). According to IBON Foundation (2020), soil degradation due to soil erosion is "severe in 70.5% of the country's land surface". The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on agriculture and food systems include supply chain4 challenges.
From the demand side of the flow, border controls restricted the free flow of goods to markets and consumers.
Philippine Government Responses to the Pandemic in the Agricultural Sector
The heaviest public investment went to a direct cash transfer program - the Financial Subsidy for Rice Farmers (FSRF). Apart from these short-term improvement responses, the DA also continued its other flagship programs to increase farmers' incomes. 5 The RCEF is a law created to "improve the competitiveness and income of rice farmers amid the liberalization of the Philippine rice trade policy, which removed quantitative restrictions on rice imports and replaced them with, among other things, tariffs" (DA n.d.).
6 SURE Aid is a loan assistance program and an ongoing wage purchase window through the National Food Authority (NFA) to increase farmers' productivity and income" and provide an additional credit facility (DA-AFID 2020c). It aims to improve rice farmers' competitiveness and income with an annual appropriation of Php 10 billion for six years, starting in 2020.
Weaknesses of the Philippine Agriculture Pandemic Responses
Half of the allocation will go to the Mechanization Program (accessibility and use of agricultural machinery and equipment, and stronger local production of agricultural machinery). Thirty percent will go to the Seed Program and the remaining 20% will be distributed equally by the Credit Program (direct loans with minimal interest and minimum collateral) and by the Extension Services Program (capacity building of rice producers, development of farmer schools, and scholarships for farmer families ). The Expanded SURE Aid and Recovery Project or SURE COVID-19 financing program through the Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC) is a credit program aimed at helping “MSEs and small, marginal farmers and fishermen who have been negatively affected” by the lockdowns community (Sunstar 2020 ).
Under the SURE COVID-19 loan program, eligible farmers and fishermen can borrow up to Php 25,000 with no collateral, zero interest and payable in 10 years. There are also questions about the impact of the programs in alleviating the plight of small farmers. First, the ALPAS improvement package covered only a small percentage of smallholder farmers: it targeted only 1.2 million farmers nationwide, as rice farmers alone numbered 2.5 million according to Guzman (2020).
Out of the Php 8.5 billion released to ALPAS, only Php 5.95 billion went to small grants and loans. The budget for programs promoting resilience in rice and fisheries amounted to only Php 1.75 billion and one billion pesos, respectively (Table 1). In general, the Philippine government's pandemic interventions in the agricultural sector "overly focused on individual consumers to go into survival mode rather than improving production and the conditions of farming communities" (Kodao Productions 2021;.
In doing so, the programs did little to build the agricultural sector's capacity to retool itself to optimize the potential for sustainable, broad-based growth.
COVID-19 Responses and Lessons from ASEAN and South Asia
On the one hand, the food supply chain is "a network that connects an agricultural system (the farm) to the consumer's table, including processes such as manufacturing, packaging, distribution and storage" (Choudhary 2021, 602 citing Chen et al. 2020). On the other hand, demand implies the willingness and ability of consumers to pay money for a specific good or service in a specific period (Siche 2020, 5 citing Gottheil 2013). The impact of the pandemic on supply and demand systems has raised several opportunities to restart agriculture and prepare the sector to be more resilient in the event of production and consumption disruptions due to another pandemic or other emergencies.
Our neighbors in ASEAN have implemented remarkable responses to address such disruptions. Some of these responses from other countries are similar to the programs being implemented by the Philippine government. This includes initiatives by the Thai and Malaysian governments to help agricultural distributors, such as 'bulk purchasing of agricultural products from farmers'. Price freeze measures for basic goods, “including the imposition of purchase limits on selected basic foodstuffs,” were also implemented in the ASEAN region (Gregorio and Ancog 2020a, 7).
However, there are other initiatives that promote food security that are common in the ASEAN region that have not been implemented in the Philippines. Singapore, on the other hand, has long been running a program targeting its agro-processing sector to boost national food stocks in preparation for disruptions like COVID-19, while also keeping an open supply chain with neighboring Malaysia between other countries in the Region. Vietnam, on the other hand, has invested in digital agriculture to improve connectivity between farms and markets, while also setting up rice distribution machines in rural and urban areas providing 1.5 kg of rice per household.
However, local governments in Nepal recently initiated what are considered best practices to address the impact of COVID-19. Free thresher for harvesting wheat (eg Saptari district in eastern Terai); a system of buying vegetables from farmers and distributing them free to affected people (eg, Khotang district in the eastern hills); A group of "81 Farmer Producer Companies (FPCs", similar to the Farmers' Cooperative Associations of the Philippines or FCAs), collected their members' vegetables and fruits and sold them to "end consumers". The government also launched a mobile app, Kisan Rath, which "connects farmers and traders across the country with transporters" (eg, logistics services)(838).
Recommendations for Preparing Philippine Agriculture
Post-Pandemic Transformation Towards Inclusive Growth and Development
Sub-sectors affected by the disruptions in the flow of goods were aggregators, transport and storage, and manufacturers and processors. The pandemic increased the flow of agricultural food and highlighted the relationship between the agri-food system and farmers' production and income. From a policy perspective, the pandemic's disruption of the free flow of goods underscores the need to have a national policy that declares agricultural production and food production (and.
In the current era of outsourcing and multi-firm collaboration, it can be understood as the interdependent production process that aims to create value for end consumers. There is also a clear need to set up a system for continuous monitoring of the supply chain and engage industry to discuss these concerns. In addition to the DA, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has launched programs to help micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to embrace digital solutions (financial technology such as online payments) and provided digital platforms (such as virtual fairs ). .
Given how regular agency budgets have been reduced even during the pandemic, we can assume that there will be even less investment in these services in the post-pandemic period. Government support in linking and connecting adopted and among members of agricultural producer companies or organizations can help to match the supply and demand of perishable goods and thus reduce wastage. The Philippines is a net importer of staple foods, making disruptions in the global food supply chain a serious concern.
In the face of such disruptions in the world market, the Philippines must work to increase the production of basic food staples to meet the demands of the local market. Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia provide cash assistance per hectare, price support for crops sold, or price pledge8—the consolidation of small farms into estates9 with full government. 9 Malaysia "increased its rice production and supply by 200 percent, and was able to reduce rice imports" by "encouraging rice farmers to join state-supported rice estates and providing assistance through farmers' associations in the estates" .
Concluding Remarks
Rapid assessment of the impact of COVID-19 on food supply chains in the Philippines.” Powerpoint presentation delivered at the 6th Mindanao Policy Research Forum, “Bouncing Back in the New Normal through Countryside. DA will initiate ALPAS COVID-19 to alleviate the threat of hunger.” Ministry of Agriculture, March 25, 2020. Enabling agricultural innovation systems to promote appropriate technologies and practices for farmers, rural youth and women during COVID-19.
Responding to the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on food value chains with efficient logistics. Assessing the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Agricultural Production in Southeast Asia: Towards Transformative Change in Agriculture. The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Agricultural Production in Southeast Asia: Fostering Transformative Change in Agri-Food Systems.” SEARCA Policy Paper 2020-1, May 2020.
In COVID-19 and Food Systems in the Indo-Pacific: Assessing Vulnerabilities, Impacts and Opportunities for Action, 165–94. Angara, UP Center for Integrative and Development Studies (UP CIDS) is a policy research unit of the university that connects disciplines and scholars in several units of the UP system. The UP CIDS Discussion Series is published by the Center for Integrative and Development Studies of the University of the Philippines.
The Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editor-in-Chief and Program Editors ensure that discussion papers contain research findings on issues that are consistent with the core agenda of the research programs under the University of the Philippines Center for Integration and Development Studies (UP CIDS).
