The Situation of Agriculture in the Philippines

PART I

“Hacienda and Encomienda system brought by the colonizers destroy the concrete and real development of Philippine Agriculture per se, including the local agriculture” said Finesa Cosico, 36, An Agriculturist and Project and Extension Officer of AGHAM.

Feny Cosico, former Grains Operation Officers of National Food Authority (NFA) is a graduate of Bachelor of Arts major in Entomology from University of the Philippines Los Banos (UPLB).

AGHAM is an organization which has an advocacy to serve the concerns of the people especially the poor by means of promoting Science and Technology.

The organization seek out help from the Science and Technology professionals, workforce and advocates to take part of the campaigns, fact-finding missions, research, community service and group discussions.

Colonization

Before the Spanish rule the land of the Philippines for 300 years, most of the Filipinos were occupied with farming, fishing, pottery-making, weaving and also mining.

Pre Spanish era includes manufacturing of “tuba”, “basi” and other liquors, manufacturing of gun powder, manufacturing of wax which will be used as products that will be traded with neighbor countries.

Learning and exploring is not new to the Filipinos, Even before the Spaniards came and invaded the socio-economic state of the country. Knowledge in leadership, agricultural engineering, and hydrology is evident when Banawe Rice Terraces were formed.

Further progress of the Filipinos were blocked by the Spaniards when they colonize the whole country and implemented political and social systems that aims to amass all from its new  colony.

Spaniards took control over the land, resources and even the Filipinos and their labor. Feudalism is first executed through the Encomienda sytem.

Feudalism or the landlord-worker relationship was a system in which workers were given land to cultivate and to develop but the overall control and fruits of labor belongs to the feudal.

During the Encomienda system all the products such as sugar, crops and coconuts are collected and then exported to the capitalist countries in Europe through the Galleon Trade.

Later on, Encomienda system was replaced by the Hacienda system since the Galleon Trade is declining in the market and Industrial Capitalism in Europe is escalating. As an outcome Spaniards strengthen the agricultural manufacturing for export that is intended to expand the land owned by the mestizos. It was very easy for the colonizers to seize bigger mass of lands to gratify the increasing need for export.

There came the 1896 Philippine revolution, the end of Spanish era and free market is now open under the US colonization.

Free market is as the same as dumping of surplus or spare goods from the US to the Philippines, Filipinos became dependent to the US and this directed to the dependence of agricultural exportation.

This policy only caters to the little segment of the Filipino society or the hacienderos who became financial associate of US firms.

Up to present, the economy is still dominated by these few influential families. 

SOURCES: 

Sharmaine Villanueva, Intern/Journalist of BULATLAT

Finesa Cosico, 36, An Agriculturist and Project and Extension Officer of AGHAM