In this age of borderless economy, the small Filipino rice farmer has become the victim. The enthronement of unlimited rice importation may have dropped rice prices that benefited consumers, but it further impoverished the artisanal rice farmer who can't improve his economies of scale due to several factors like mechanization, access to cheap inputs, government support, etc.
Strategies for the survival of the farmers should immediately be put in place. For the small town of Bingawan, safety nets had been initiated for two decades now.
The late former Mayor Zafiro Palabrica, an agriculturist and farmer always advocated farm diversification. In the late 1980s up to the mid1990s he pushed for a diversified farm system throughout the small town. He advocated mulberry trees for silk and as fodder for goats and later deer. He also lined the roads of Bingawan with pili trees and pushed other farmers to plant all kinds of fruits and banana both for food and for sale. Vegetables became a common sight throughout the municipality because of his encouragement to improve malnutrition and as added income for farmers who often suffer from low prices during the peak of harvest season.
Now Bingawan under the leadership of his sons is a diversified economy based on farming. Farm products come out from the different baranggays year round. Bingawan farmers compete in volume and quality with their counterparts in the third district of Iloilo.
Lately, many public markets sell live chickens and ducks which vendors say come from Bingawan. This shows that diversification has become an institution in the town.
More is coming in the future, says Board Member Matt Palabrica. He and his brother Mayor Mark is encouraging is further productivity in the SFRs so that the farms within it's coverage are made productive year round. Additionally, they want to encourage tourism in many forms. Tourism is the biggest economic activity worldwide today. The municipality plans to join this worldwide economic phenomenon as another income stream for its residents.
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Published articles, private opinions on varied subjects ranging from alternative and appropriate technologies, nutraceuticals, rural and suburban development and developmental politics.
