Cordillera children forced out of school due to cheap veggie imports

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Pity the schoolchildren in the Cordillera.

Not so few of them have to stop schooling because the source of income of their parents–vegetable farming–has been decimated by the influx of imported vegetables.

Because of the flooding of Philippine markets with vegetables from other countries, many farms have become idle as the Cordillera farmers shifted to other occupations.

"Driven into a state of psychological disposition and stress, some farmers had to borrow money but were unable to pay back in most cases," noted Dr. Darlyn Tagarino and Jariet Siano of the Benguet State University (BSU) here.

Others left their fate to the divine, invoking the usual response whenever caught in life’s jam–"Bahala Na" (Come what may), they added.

Dr. Tagarino, who is BSU vice president for planning and development, and Siano studied the trends in prices, volume of production, and marketing, as well as the perceived effects of the flooding of imported vegetables on farming households in eight towns of Benguet and Mt. Province.

Of 608 farmers interviewed, those who said they had incurred losses increased from 3.45 percent in 2000 to 14.4 percent in 2001, as reported by Rita M. Fabro of the Los Baños-based Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD).

The situation subsequently worsened as 92.47 percent reported losses in 2002 and 25.37 as early as the first quarter of 2003.

Losses incurred in 2003 were highest in cabbage (38 percent), potato (23 percent), and carrot (16 percent).

The respondents attributed the losses mainly to the products’ low market prices. They said that with the inflow of agricultural products from other countries, middlemen and traders lowered their buying prices.

Encouragingly, though, local and national government agencies, particularly the Department of Agriculture (DA), have been taking measures to alleviate the sad plight of the farmers.