Civil Society Assessment of the MTPDP 2004-2010

Thematic area: Agriculture
Summary

In President Arroyo’s 2004-2010 Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP), a whole chapter is devoted to the agriculture sector. As stated in the chapter’s situationer, agriculture is the bedrock of the rural economy. In the past MTPDP (2001-2003), agriculture and fisheries production targets have been exceeded in spite of the challenges posed by the El Niño and La Niña phenomena during the period. There was, however, not much improvement in overall labor productivity in the sector. Comparative yield, production cost, and price data on various agricultural commodities show that the gains posted by the country were surpassed by its neighboring countries. Thus, the comparative advantage of Philippine agriculture continued to wane resulting in it increasingly becoming a net importer of agricultural products since 1994.

With this scenario in mind, the MTPDP 2004-2010 outlined strategies and action plans that will address the need of the sector not only in gaining back its comparative advantage but as well as improving the economic situation of its sector members—the rural poor. The assessment done by PhilDHRRA will do a quantitative analysis of the outputs and results of implementing the medium-term plan. The main methodology of assessment is through comparison of targets cited in the plan and the actual outputs or results gained. Data to be utilized is consolidated from various government agencies.  

As mentioned in the plan, there is a need for a more holistic approach in reducing rural poverty that will not only address the production bottlenecks in agriculture but also its inherent vulnerabilities. Therefore, the flagship strategy adopted is the promotion of agribusiness. This will not only address agricultural production constraints, but also post-production handling, value-adding, and distribution concerns, all of which are the major and inter-connected determinants of job creation and income stability in the countryside.
 
Two major goals outlined in the MTPDP 2004-2010 are:
 
Goal 1: Develop at least 2 million hectares of new land for agribusiness in order to contribute 2 million out of the 10 million jobs targeted as a legacy by 2010

Goal 2: Make food plentiful at competitive prices where the cost of priority “wage goods” such as rice, sugar, vegetables, poultry, pork and fish and other important non-wage goods like corn must be reduced. This also means that government will continue to fight for self-sufficiency in rice production by increasing price and production efficiency and competitiveness.

Because of the comprehensive scope of the MTPDP, assessment will be conducted for the following categories or indicators: 1) production and productivity, 2) prices, 3) employment and wage, 4) agribusiness lands development and LAD, 5) gross value added (GVA) in agriculture, and 6) agricultural support services. Some of the indicators outlined in the MTPDP and the SPM were not assessed because of the lack of data. In addition, the NSCB’s own monitoring indicators of the MTPDP will be presented. The accomplishments (for 2004 to 2008) cited in the Updated MTPDP will also be utilized.

The findings of the assessment can be summed up on the attached.