Atty. Gregorio B. Austral, CPA
Innovation in agriculture and human capital: an endless promise
Remember outgoing NEDA Secretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua in one of his press conferences before seemed to have found the silver bullet to eradicate poverty and this is the introduction of innovation in agriculture and human capital. And what results do we expect from this proposed innovation? Chua says it is Philippines’ structural transformation to upper middle-income status.
Despite the setbacks brought by the pandemic, Chua is holding on to the 2040 vision where no one is poor and everyone is living in a more comfortable middle-class society. “The Philippines has great potential, but to sustain our next level of development, we have to innovate and further improve the way we do things,” he said.
The NEDA chief said that instead of simply assembling products and using ideas that were generated from other countries, the Philippines should gradually shift to a new framework where the ideas are coming from within the country and contributed by our human resources.
As always, the Philippines is not left behind in terms of laws passed as foundation for the envisioned innovation. Chua counts the Universal Health Care act, the Philippine Identification System or National ID law, and the Enhanced Basic Education or K-12 act. The government has also enacted the Philippine Innovation act, Innovative Startup act, Philippine Space act, and the Balik Scientist program to encourage more innovation. The government has passed the Rice Tariffication Law and is removing the remaining tariff and non-tariff barriers that reduce food security. All these bring down food prices for consumers. Moreover, the newly-passed Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) Act also provides more performance-based tax incentives with high priority on research and development.
Indeed, we have good laws. But as Chua admitted, the key challenge now is proper and strategic implementation. This is no mean feat. For several decades, we have seen how our neighbors in the ASEAN have left us behind in terms of innovation in agriculture and human capital. The Philippines is among Asia’s premier labor markets. This is true in terms of number but not necessarily of quality, since the country houses a large and growing young population with a median age of 23, a vital demographic advantage. However, the education sector has a track record of low competitiveness rankings. Our modern unsung heroes, the OFWs, continue to keep the Philippine economy afloat with their inward remittances, but their honest desire to uplift the economic condition of their respective families does not generally inspire innovation. On the contrary, it breeds a culture of dependency.
Owing to the dire state of agriculture, children of Filipino farmers have witnessed how hard it is to depend on agriculture for their basic needs, thus, developing a strong aversion to agriculture that fuels in part the diaspora of the Filipino people.
While innovation is the key to untangle us from the fetters of poverty, we have not yet seen the true transformation of brilliant ideas into actions and results. Public officials have been paying a lip service to innovation with motherhood statements but with no clear strategy and concrete action plan. With the change in administration in the coming days, the fate of a more comfortable middle-class society is bound to fizzle out, and replaced with the same promise couched in a pompous language. Filipinos deserve concrete actions and favorable outcomes, not just a flourish of rhetoric.