Postharvest Losses Very Significant – Can LGUs Assist DA With Additional Budget?


Insights valuable for their own sector’s development don’t come easy to farmers – such as they don’t realize they have postharvest losses they would gladly not have if they knew how to prevent them.

The above images suggest losses: much loss, from manual vegetable harvesting (top image from the Department of Agriculture (DA)), and minimal loss (bottom, rice combine harvester, photo by Ben Briones[1]). They show the stark difference between non-mechanization and farm mechanization.

How much postharvest losses prevented are we talking about if we mechanize harvesting, drying & processing foods produced in Philippine farms? Executive Director Baldwin Jallorina of the Philippine Center for Postharvest Development & Mechanization (PhilMech) says (Christine Cudis, 01 June 2021, “LGUs Urged To Give Post-Harvest Aid Amid Solon's Ruling[2],” PNA.gov.ph):

In the Philippines, postharvest losses of commodities represent a very significant loss of 10 to 50 percent of production output… This means that 10 percent to 50 percent of all the land, inputs, and labor used to produce the commodities go to waste.

Farmers are wasting up to 50% of their output!

PhilMech is under the DA. To fully mechanize Philippine agriculture, the DA needs billions of pesos. Now comes the “Mandanas Ruling” promising billions of pesos for the local government units (LGUs) starting 2022 – thus, the DA can request additional budget from the LGUs:

The Mandanas ruling states that national taxes for inclusion in the base of the just share of LGUs shall include the national internal revenue taxes enumerated in Section 21 of the National Internal Revenue Code, as amended, collected by the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Bureau of Customs; Tariff and customs duties collected by the Bureau of Customs; 50 percent of the value-added taxes collected in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), and 30 percent of all other national taxes collected in ARMM.

Based on computations by the Department of Finance, the ruling will increase the National Tax Allotment of LGUs in 2022 by P234,600,000,000 (P234 Billion).

Considering such, even food security advocate Asis Perez, current Convener of Tugon Kabuhayan (and former Bureau of Fisheries & Aquatic Resources Director), urged LGUs “to focus on the use of additional resources for farmers and fisherfolk to increase their production by investing more in (postharvest) facilities.” He says:

We suggest that 10 percent of the funds or (P234) billion be allocated for (those postharvest facilities) annually, especially in the countryside where most production is happening. The allocation can be adjusted once LGUs reach the desired production and (postharvest) losses targets.

Mr Perez suggests that “10 percent of the funds or P234 billion be allocated for (postharvest facilities) annually, especially in the countryside where most production is happening.” Higher production volumes plus lower production losses “will not only benefit the countryside. Done properly, metropolitan cities will share the benefit in terms of availability of fresh, nutritious food at affordable prices.”

Now then, in 2022, our farmers and fishers will depend much on the DA as well as LGUs for government postharvest expenses on their behalves.@517


[1]https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1095792

[2]https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1142256?fbclid=IwAR3zoCwVVNr-bz1AMv5QuFnRenqWe3xA_u4vkxTcCNTBNhdi606nx8gABBw

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Introducing – Frank A Hilario, “The Happy Blogger Who Talks Trass!”

Image
September is my birth month; on the 17 th , Friday, I will be 81 – and I must not forget to thank God! I have been asking Him to let me live up to 120 – at least 100! The above image states the date (in 2018) and suggests “1940” when I was born. I am beginning to celebrate with a new blog, where you are reading this: Tradition, Science & Sense (Trass), https://traditionsciencesense.blogspot.com . This is the first essay of The Happy Blogger Who Talks Trass! (See outline of face above?) The Hilarios are Roman Catholics. As was required by the parish priest at that time, the name of a newborn came from the Roman Catholic calendar, that of the saint that birth day, and the 17 th of September is the Feast of the Stigmata of St Francis . Localized, the name “Francisco Hilario” was registered in the archives of the Roman Catholic Church of my hometown Asingan in eastern Pangasinan. “Francisco” did not last very long because in Elementary, when I wrote my name “Francisco Hilario” ...
Read more

One Lesson Ignored In The Chaos Caused By Covid – Health Begins At Home!

Image
Today’s Reminder: Always, we have been our first line of defense against sickness. Yes: Now, “health” refers to “body, mind, spirit and soul” taken together. Yes: Health begins at home. (“Body, Mind, Spirit, Soul” imag e [1]  by Mimi Clark, Gaia Blooming , Pinterest) (“Health Begins At Home” imag e [2] from CDC-TV, CDC.gov ) I myself did not realize that until today when I saw Irma Santos Paulme’s Facebook sharing 14 September 2021: We, the healthcare workers, are not your frontliners any longer. We are (now) your LAST LINE OF DEFENSE. YOU, my fellow people, are the frontliners now. The war has shifted to the community and it is up to you. This cannot be won in the confines of the hospital… Dr B Calinawagan Let this sink in. Thank you, Dr B Calinawagan , whoever you are! I see: Your family name means Enlightenment. Thank you for enlightening us even if it’s 2 years late! We must now pay attention to ourselves more than ever. Now, using Chrome, I googled for “health b...
Read more

We Need Modern-Day Heroes In The Philippines!

Image
Ramon Yedra’s Facebook sharings are many and multi-dimensional; sometimes they are out of my world, but I still admire him for being forthright as well as civil. They don’t make them like they used to anymore! 31 August 2021 is the 114th birth anniversary of PH President Ramon Magsaysay . Here is Mr Yedra on Mr Magsaysay and “Rebuilding A Nation,” which is the essence of his 1953 presidential inaugural speech: “We have a glorious past. Now we must build a future worthy of that past.” This is from “Inaugural Address of President Magsaysay, 30 December 1953 [1] ”: All too often, however, we speak of Rizal – and of Del Pilar, Bonifacio, Mabini, and our host of heroes – as if their work were done, as if today their spirit had ceased to have any meaning or value to our people. The truth is that we need their spirit now more than ever. We need it to complete the work (that) they began. If you ask me, an Ilocano writer-thinker, PH’s National Hero Jose Rizal was for Filipino independ...
Read more