19/06/2014 (Tempo) - A couple of reports published recently by major newspapers caught my attention. One was about a plan by the local unit of the global food giant Nestle to increase its coffee buying stations from nine to 12 this year. And the other was about a proposal to convert eight million hectares of lands into palm plantations.

The expansion of the buying stations will allow Nestle Philippines to increase its purchases of coffee beans from local farmers to 70 percent in the next six years, from 30 percent at present.

This is definitely good news for farmers in areas that cultivate coffee, such as Cavite, Batangas, and Cagayan in Luzon, Negros Oriental in the Visayas and several provinces in Mindanao. Nestle is also reported looking at other crops like cacao and cassava, which are locally cultivated, but not in commercial quantities comparable to producers from other countries.

The other report was about a proposal of Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Ramon Paje to convert eight million hectares of idle and denuded lands into oil palm plantations. The Philippines is already one of the world’s top producers of coconut oil. Getting a sizeable chunk of the palm oil market would be a big boost to the agriculture sector.

These news reports brought to my mind the government’s report on the performance of the economy, which came out almost at the same time as the news about Nestle’s plan and Secretary Paje’s proposal.

The economy, as measured by the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) or total output of goods and services, grew by 5.7 percent in the first quarter of 2014, according to the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB).

Among the three major sectors on the production side, services grew the fastest at 6.8 percent, up from 6.5 percent in the first quarter of 2013. The industry sector followed with a growth rate of 5.5 percent, down from 11.3 percent year-on-year. The agriculture sector, which includes agriculture, hunting, fishery and forestry (AHFF), remained the laggard with a 0.9-percent negligible improvement in the first three months of this year, from the already slow 3.2 percent a year ago.

In terms of contribution to GDP growth, agriculture also accounted for the least, at 0.1 percent, compared with 1.8 percent from the industry sector and 3.8 percent from services.

This is lamentable, considering that agriculture also accounts for 30.7 percent of employment in the country as of April, 2014, compared with 16.4 percent for the industry sector and 52.8 percent for services.

In my view, the planned expansion of Nestle’s network of buying stations, the proposed conversion of idle lands into productive and export-oriented oil palm plantations and the sorry state of the agriculture sector are what we need. These activities of multinationals and those that could bring in large investors should be encouraged.

We need big-ticket deals from the giant corporate players if we want agriculture to increase its contribution to the country’s economic growth. We are already producing bananas, pineapple, and to some degree mangoes, in commercial quantities, but we need to encourage commercial production of other crops.

This will increase not only the agriculture sector’s contribution to the economy but also the incomes of our rural population, which includes the poorest among us.

In the end, we may see the renaissance of agriculture in our country. (To be continued)

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