LAST month, San Simon mayor Abundio Punsalan Jr. urged farmers in his town to refrain from selling their farmlands in the name of food security for the present generation and the next.
He lamented the practice of many farmers today who sell their lands to realty developers and businessmen, only to end up regretting after selling their tracts of land and indiscriminately spent their proceeds.
It can be observed that we have the diminishing number of farmlands in the province after being sold and converted into subdivisions, malls, commercial and industrial establishments. The rate is alarming.
I can still recall the abundance then of farmlands planted with vegetables, corn, sugarcane and palay in many parts of Pampanga. I myself grew up in a farming community where we need not buy our own food consumption on our dining tables. We also have livestock raised in our own backyards complementing vegetables and rice.
On the other hand, we cannot sometimes blame farmland owners as they sell their land for profit and for them to instantly experience a little luxury in their lifetime. This is due to the times when farming inputs are higher than the outputs.
There are farmers who infuse much of their resources only to yield a little or sometimes the price of their yield when marketed is low that gives them a break even scenario on their farming.
Nevertheless, this does not justify the fact that they sell farmlands indiscriminately eventually leading to lack of produce. We cannot just rely on importation of farm products including rice which is a primary staple on Filipino tables.
Mayor Punsalan knows the sad plight of farmland owners and farmers who are sometimes forced by circumstances to sell their farmlands.
Worthy of admiration is his awareness of the needs of farmers that increase their inputs while with lesser outputs. He knows that farmland owners and farmers need the support of the government to stabilize the economic aspect of farming. He assured farmers the support of the government for their activities such as seeds, farming implements, irrigation, loans and grants, among others.
This should be the case in every other farming towns because our farmers really need to be assisted especially to address the rising cost of production.
In other countries, farmers are well-subsidized by their respective governments from farm preparations to inputs, harvesting and marketing of produce.
Farmers in other words, are well-taken care of by their governments. Some countries even offer tax exemptions to farming inputs and other tax incentives.
Mayor Punsalan's deeds of giving attention to farmlands and farmers is worthy of emulation.
He has empathy to food producers and he wants to address their cries and woes. May other local chief executives consider giving priority and attention to our farmers.
Agriculture, they say, is the backbone of our country. This backbone should be strengthened not only for this day's generation but also for the next.
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