I wrote this pre-pandemic but never got to share nor implement it. I feel now this could be worth sharing as we recover from the effects of the pandemic.
The mention of agriculture or farming always connotes the idea of soil cultivation for growing crops, alongside the raising of animals, which now also includes the culture of fish in suitable areas either integrated or totally separated from crop production.
The traditional way of life of farmers revolves around producing crops, and harvesting them for food, or selling these in raw forms in the market for generating cash income for their other basic needs. Simple life but sufficient.
In the past, farmers with basic needs and limited wants were the producers and the consumers of their products.
We now live in different times because farmers have become dependent on the outside market where they could sell their products or buy for farm inputs.
Farmers now act as producers of raw materials, and consumers of manufactured goods that have ingredients or components that ironically came from their own agricultural products. The capitalist market has absorbed or controlled the once self-sufficient farmers.
Meanwhile, the traders and processors of farm products end up earning more from the added value of the farm crops, which they transformed into new products, and selling them at a higher price in the market.
In other words, the farmers earn only from what they directly produced on their farms, according to the dictated price in the market.
In contrast, the traders and processors earn more from creating new uses of these products, and selling these with greater margins of profit.
But there is no more turning back. The only option for small farmers, in particular, is to regain control of their products, and find alternatives when markets close or take advantage of their fragility.
Common reasons for their limited opportunities to make the most out of their labor and products is their lack of information, skills, and capital to venture or expand their economic horizons beyond simply the planting, harvesting, and selling their crops. These could be addressed if farmers are willing to expand their economic horizons.
Being a nature-dependent industry, agriculture is affected by climate change and weather extremes, which put at high risk the lives of farmers. Crop failure means poor health and nutrition, failed education of children, prolonged indebtedness, and so on.
Thus, the economic impact of climate change to the farming household economy, the community, and the country requires the formulation and implementation of effective and appropriate adaptive measures to climate change impacts.
These measures include livelihood diversification which would liberate farmers from the heavy dependence on single livelihood source or farm crop, and the outside market.
Diversification could be in the form of planting several types of crops that would mature during different months or raise certain species that could withstand drought and floods, having various kinds of economic activities that rely on different resources or those involving on-farm and off-farm engagements, and many other creative ways of moving away from heavy dependence on particular sources of income.
Farming communities could also attract tourists who seek natural products and natural experience.
Tourism is an industry that has demonstrated significant contribution to the local economy. Introducing it to the farming systems increases the potential of tourism to add to the livelihood sources of farmers. But the farms cannot only remain traditionally as sources of food products for tourists. Farms can be reconfigured as tourist destinations with farm animals, plants, and the fields as spectacles to see, and the diversity of food processed by farmers or local entrepreneurs provide the gastronomic experiences of tourists.
But tourism is not a panacea to farmers. It is also fragile and a vulnerable industry to the impacts of the pandemic and climate change, particularly nature-based tourism, thus, requiring a better understanding of the dynamics between agriculture and tourism industries.
Aptly dubbed as agritourism, which is broader than farm tourism per se, how farmers can be significantly involved, and be provided with safety nets to cushion abrupt and drastic changes must be planned with appropriate data involving multiple stakeholders.
I’ll discuss more on agritourism and the roles of government and private organizations in my next column. How should the local government unit take the lead?
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Author’s email: enriquegoracion@su.edu.ph
