ASEAN integration in an Agricultural Perspective
The ASEAN integration will lift the barriers posed on goods, services, labour and even capital between member countries, a characteristic not offered by free-trade agreements. Ill-prepared for this union, the Philippine agricultural sector is facing and will face great challenges.
First, on the economic side, there is a comparative disadvantage in the agricultural production, with respect to other member countries. Agricultural products produced in our country, like rice, is also produce by some ASEAN members. To point out, relatively, the efficiency in our production is lower compared to other member nations. To cope up with this, tariffs have been posed to imported goods. Now that it has been lifted, with the advent of the integration, these imported goods will consequently lower in prices. Apparently, the prices of some imported products will be lower than that of locally-produced ones. This is a great problem since the Filipino consumers will evidently submit into purchasing lower-priced goods, as a result of poverty and/or frugality. Becaue of this, Filipino producers will lose their market. Eventually, farmers will be faced with the dilemma of continuing to produce or not, as market prices have lowered and they could not keep up with it.
In my opinion, this agricultural inefficiency in production, coupled with the ASEAN integration, could cause the eventual loss and degradation of the Philippine agricultural sector. Farmers and agriculturists will eventually seek greener pastures as our “inefficient” farming system serves to be unprofitable. In the mere future, a shift of focus from agriculture towards another industry is apparent if nothing is done.
From here, the work of the academe starts by strengthening the agricultural chain of production towards a more efficient one. Innovations and technologies should be made and adopted in order to facilitate efficiency and keep up with other ASEAN member countries.
In the case of the industry, specifically vegetable industry, they see the negative impacts of the integration, having inefficient production in the Philippines; however, they also see a silver lining. Since we could not compete on crops produced by other countries, Philippines can shift into producing crops that are not found on other countries, like okra and ampalaya. A wider market for these crops would eventually develop.
Other ASEAN nations have set their goals and started their preparations as early as a decade ago. Twenty fifteen has finally arrived and the Philippines is still in shambles. Indeed, the Philippines is not ready for the said integration.