Published article written by Desiree Caluza
Topic: Mining & Veg. Farming
Study says veggie trade, mining top job givers

First posted 11:20pm (Mla time) Aug 04, 2005
By Desiree Caluza
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on Page A20 of the August 5, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
BAGUIO CITY—Benguet’s mining and vegetable industries would remain the most important job generators in the province, a study conducted by an environment advocate here said.
In her study, Baboo Mondo?edo, an environmentalist and one of the founders of the Cordillera News Agency, however noted that all industry stakeholders must also consider the environmental impact of development on these sectors.
Mondo?edo presented the study [“Case study on vegetable and mining industries in Benguet: Its impact on poverty, environment and globalization”] to local officials last week in preparation for the national report on the government’s medium-term development goals.
She said agriculture comprised more than 50 percent of the total employment in the Cordillera. Vegetable farming employs 140,000 people, most of them in Benguet.
Still, she noted that the vegetable industry continues to encounter problems such as the high cost of production, unstable market, layers of middlemen, declining soil productivity, lack of infrastructure, stiff global competition and the lack of support from the government.
During a recent regional development council meeting, Mt. Province Gov. Maximo Dalog said the growth of agriculture, which employs half of Cordillera residents, “has been rather slow.”
Dalog, the RDC chair, said that when the Cordillera Administrative Region was created in 1987, agriculture had a gross output of P2.6 billion. However, it grossed only P3.5 billion in 2003.
These figures suggested that the Cordillera, a major source of Metro Manila’s salad vegetables, contributed the least to national agricultural growth, Dalog said.
Mondo?edo’s study said there is a prevailing negative public perception on large-scale mining and entry of foreign investors.
She said other problems encountered by the mining industry are “the degradation of the environment, lack of social responsibility, absence of discernable positive effect on local development and the loopholes on the free, prior and inform consent (FPIC) process.”
The study promoted small-scale mining but recommended its regulation.
Some local officials saw the potential of small-scale mining as an alternative industry and a family enterprise.
“Before the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade was signed [in the 1990s], Itogon was thinking of turning to vegetable growing if [large-scale mining stops]. But with the problem on importation and GATT, there is no way that our town can go into vegetable farming. We found an alternative; we found that small-scale mining will go a long way,” said Mayor Mario Godio of Itogon, Benguet.