For the recent agriculture interviews of key presidential candidates, the general directions given must now be supplemented with the necessary detail. Without this, we cannot have a better future for agriculture.
The interviewees were Mayor Isko Moreno on Nov. 24, Vice President Leni Robredo on Nov. 29 and former Senator Bongbong Marcos on Dec. 6.
The interviewers were the heads of five organizations representing different agriculture sectors: farmers and fisherfolk (Federation of Free Farmers); agribusiness (Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food Inc.); science and academe (Coalition for Agriculture Modernization in the Philippines); alliances (Alyansa Agrikultura) and nongovernment organizations (Bayanihan sa Agrikultura).
Recommendations
They had submitted a two page document with 12 priority recommendations to the presidentiables: “Transform Agriculture for Food Security, Job Creation and Balanced Growth.” This was done three weeks before the interviews so that the presidential aspirants could study and prepare their responses and insights on each of the recommendations.
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The 12 recommendations, approved unanimously by the five groups, are very specific. They suggest actions that are currently not being done which, if implemented, would get us out of our agriculture crisis.
It was with great anticipation that the leaders looked forward to the aspirants’ positions. However, the leaders were warned that many candidates promise a lot, but deliver little when elected.
