Agri subsidy eyed for biodiversity-friendly farming

Agri subsidy eyed for biodiversity-friendly farming | Daily Tribune

Reallocating agricultural subsidy to support biodiversity-friendly farming practices can help upland farmers adopt sustainable food production methods that are in line with ecological policies.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and Department of Agriculture (DA) have partnered with the United Nations Development Program’s Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN) to push the strategy to address the ecologically detrimental effects of the current farming systems like monocropping.

“The continuous encroachment of unregulated and unsustainable agriculture in our mountains, particularly inside protected areas, can drastically reduce the many benefits we derive from nature -- from clean water and harvestable forest products like rattan to temperature regulation and natural flood-control,” Mariglo Rosaida Laririt, assistant director of the DENR’s Biodiversity Management Bureau says.

Agricultural subsidies are government incentives meant to support farmers by supplementing income, managing the supply of farm products and influencing the cost of growing and selling crops. Examples include discounts or rebates for fertilizers, genetically-modified seedstock or pesticides — all meant to keep local production viable. Philippine agricultural subsidies averaged P3.36 billion yearly from 2010 to 2015.

BIOFIN is working with the DENR to narrow the financing gap for the implementation of the Philippine Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan, the country’s roadmap to conserving its biodiversity. It is also working with the DA to balance agriculture and biodiversity conservation.

Currently in its planning stages, the reallocation of agricultural subsidies can strengthen and scale up the implementation of biodiversity-friendly agricultural practices and key safeguard measures, including soil conservation, multiple cropping, the protection of biologically-important pollinators like bees and butterflies, plus other existing standards and certifications such as organic agriculture, plus Good Agricultural Practices, which are standards for sustainable, safe and top-quality food production.

Biodiversity-friendly practices

A paper published this year revealed how monocropping or planting a single dominant cash crop like pineapple, cacao or coffee often leads to biodiversity and water loss, plus severe soil erosion that causes destructive floods in lowland areas.

“Whereas traditional farming systems rotate different crops, monocropping often relies on external inputs like chemical fertilizers and pesticides to optimize production,” Muneer Hinay, co-founder of Kids Who Farm, says.

“By applying solutions like intercropping and rotating crops, farm ecosystems are diversified, soil fertility is restored and production resources are optimized. This helps cushion the long-term impacts of commodity price fluctuations while allowing a greater variety of food to be grown,” he says.

Anabelle Plantilla, national project manager for UNDP-BIOFIN in the Philippines, adds that agricultural subsidies can be used to buoy native upland products like heirloom rice and other uniquely marketable Pinoy grains like Adlai.

“Subsidies can also encourage more women and the youth to return to farming. In a world of call centers and remote jobs, few young Pinoys want to till the land their families have for generations. Repurposed subsidies can make farming a lucrative enterprise again,” according to Plantilla.

With runaway climate change disrupting natural seasonal cycles, the decreasing number of youths involved in agriculture, plus a growing reliance on intensive, fertilizer and pesticide-reliant production, more Philippine mountains and upland areas might be converted into farmland via kaingin or slash and burn farming.

By supporting the involvement of youth in agriculture and by carefully repurposing agricultural subsidies, upland farms can be transformed into sustainable, agroforestry-based livelihood systems that simultaneously generate food while keeping ecological integrity intact. Jing Villamente