Farm tourism to the rescue?

Although we have one of the fastest growing economies in ASEAN, agriculture’s share in our country’s GDP, now at 9.4 percent compared to our historical average of 18.54 percent, has been on a steady decline for several decades now with no signs of a reversal of the trend since 1960 according to a World Bank study as reported by Global Economics. This is despite the fact that we are an agricultural country with 47 percent of our land area intended for farming but with only about 23 percent of our employment base in the sector.

This anomaly can be traced to several reasons.

Farming is considered a high risk proposition with revenues highly dependent on a host of factors most of which are either not controllable or difficult to mitigate such as climate change, inability to access financing, inadequate support infrastructure, outdated farming equipment, limited access to land and equity capital.

This list of deplorables does not even consider the competition from imports from other high volume producing, low production cost countries and the seasonal greed of local wholesale middlemen with a penchant for hoarding to take advantage of cyclical world prices of critical commodities such as rice and sugar, squeezing in the process the profit margins of local farmers.

Like a vicious cycle, these risks are of course a turn-off for most businessmen who, by nature, are risk averse or at least confident that they are manageable and justified by attractive returns. These have prevented new investments that could be directed to capex in modern, technology driven farming equipment, exacerbating this unfortunate state of affairs.

But perhaps more telling, particularly for our social media-infected youth, the Hope of the Fatherland as ironically prophesied by Jose Rizal, is the social stigma attached by the young to the unglamorous work of tilling the soil compared to the digital image of a white-collar job in a plush air conditioned office, which in truth is far from the reality of the typical humdrum existence of a city bound employee struggling day-to-day on a hand-to-mouth regimen in order to barely get past soaring utility bills, rising rent, and horrendous traffic.

So what could be some solutions to this conundrum?

A few enlightened folks heavy into tourism, led by former Secretary Nina Gabor — already immersed in the magical allure of the world renowned hospitality of Filipinos, our ease with English, the universal language of most countries, the easy access to our numerous beautiful beaches blessed with grain-like sand conveniently situated only hours away, and the appeal of an environmentally friendly lush and rustic countryside — had latched onto the notion of combining Tourism with Farming, a trend that had begun to take hold in other countries.

They decided to nudge the government into legislating into law “The Farm Tourism Development Act of 2016” to provide the necessary push to promote Farm Tourism with the active participation of the DoT, the DTI and the DA.

Like a vicious cycle, these risks are of course a turn-off for most businessmen who, by nature, are risk averse.

To ensure the proper and widespread dissemination of the benefits of Farm Tourism to the various stakeholders, the law called for the creation of a Farm Tourism Development Board to coordinate the efforts and roles of various government departments, corporations, and agencies such as Land Bank, DBP, TIEZA, BoI, SBC, DPWH and DoTC.

Fast forward to 2025. Although still needing to contend with some critical issues such as greater access to financing, tax and regulatory incentives, and other logistical concerns perhaps necessitating the refinement and tweaking of the law, the Farm Tourism industry has nevertheless made its presence felt.

This week, the 8th Philippine International Farm Tourism Conference in GenSan is conducting a weeklong flurry of activities of learning from industry and government leaders and sharing of experiences of best practices with the indefatigable Mina Gabor very much still at the forefront.

Mina is ably supported by her longtime friend, Ida Joseph, herself an avid advocate of sustainable farm tourism through her tireless involvement in Paraiso Village Farm in San Jose, Batangas, together with Gawad Kalinga founder and renowned social advocacy champion, Tony Meloto.

The 8.8-hectare Paraiso is a showcase of social entrepreneurship and a prime example of Farm Tourism. One can spend a weekend there with family in villa-style accommodations; enjoy recreational facilities like a pool and a jacuzzi and a multi-purpose hall; or spend peaceful meditation time in a chapel, all nicely nestled amidst trees, lush and green vegetation, and farm animals while savoring hearty meals of organically food produced by Paraiso. And for those keen on trying their hand at farming and learning socially responsible crop production and animal breeding techniques.

Indeed, in a world now unquestionably aware of the importance of Sustainability, could Farm Tourism very well be one of the answers to the woes of the Agriculture industry?

Until next week… OBF!

For comments, email bing_matoto@yahoo.com.