ODA Not the Answer to Food Insecurity

Official Development Assistance(ODA) projects are meant to help. But according to the People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty (PCFS), Asian Peasant Coalition (APC), and the Kilusang Magbubukid  ng Pilipinas (KMP), ODA  projects have exacerbated poverty, hunger and landlessness in the Philippines.

“ODAs continue to facilitate continuous landgrabbing of foreign corporations and big landlords,” said Wilfredo Marbella, KMP Deputy Secretary-General for Internal Affairs.  Saudi Arabia has invested $300 million in order to obtain cash crops. Meanwhile, Hacienda Luisita Inc. has entered into negotiations with the Wahaha Group (China’s biggest manufacturing company of softdrinks) to export sugar. Marbella was one of the speakers at the National Consultation on Agrarian Reform and Food Sovereignty last March 25, 2011.

Another problem with ODA is that is largely foreign debt, and attached with policy conditionalities, said Rosario Bella Guzman, Executive Director of IBON Foundation. ODA in agriculture promotes high-value crops, corporate plantations and corporate schemes. Instead of developing a recipient country’s agricultural system, ODA increasingly transmits finances to First World corporate agriculture, instead of the other way around.  ODA also focuses on corporate famers instead of farming communities.

ODA projects in the Philippines have led to the displacement and hunger of small farmers. ODA projects like the Casecnan and Pantabangan dams in Nueva Ecija have inundated communities and displaced indigenous people for so-called watershed protection, according to Joseph Canlas, Chairperson of Alyansa ng mga Magbubukid sa Gitnang Luzon.

The Asian Development Bank has given $70 million in order to complete the second phase of the Agrarian Reform Community (ARC) project. This project aims to reduce poverty by promoting an agribusiness approach to rural development. But there are numerous people like Gina Ellado who have yet to reap the project’s benefits. Ellado lives in an ARC in Rizal. When she is not farming, she works as a kargador or porter who transports boulders from mountaintops to the lowland. She receives P150 per day as payment. But that is not enough to feed her family, since she does not work everyday. Clearly, ARCs do not live up to their promise of “long lasting improvements in the capabilities and well-being of poor and marginalized groups.”    

Real Solutions to Food Insecurity
Rather than relying on ODA, real solutions are needed in order to combat food insecurity. This includes the passage of HB 3059 or the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill, which aims for the free distribution of land to landless farmers. “It will lay grounds for the dismantling of the land monopoly of few land owners, eradicate foreign control of our lands and distribute lands for free to farmers,” said Anakpawis Partylist representative Rafael Mariano.

Another way to fight food insecurity is to develop the government’s research agenda on sustainable agriculture and appropriate technology. This includes the promotion of organic and natural farming methods. Sustainable practices discourage the use of chemical pesticides and hybrid seeds purchased from the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), which is also funded by foreign countries.

The Philippine Network of Food Security Programmes (PNFSP) works with communities in order to research and develop local practices and techniques on farming. PNFSP is also testing appropriate technology and alternative energy sources. In order to address food insecurity, communities need to be empowered to become self-sufficient in producing their own food.