ADB, IFAD And World Bank – Should Not Your US$ Millions & Millions Of Funds For PH Instead Addressed To Solve Farmer Poverty And Simultaneously Resolve Climate Change!?

Thank you, ADB, IFAD and World Bank for your billion-dollar agriculture projects for the Philippines! Today, Friday, 10 Feb 2023, in one quick digital search, I count a total of US$1.6 billion. As an agriculturist (UP Los Baños 1965, BS Agriculture major in Agricultural Education) focused on “Communication for Development” (ComDev), my original 40-year-old concept – I will now scrutinize your projects as they relate to National Development via Agriculture.

I am now looking at the IFAD, ADB, World Bank projects in the Philippines for agriculture development:

ADB has a “Competitive and Inclusive Agriculture Development Program, Subprogram 1 (RRP PHI 53353)” (“Risk Assessment And Risk Management Plan” in pdf, ADB, adb.org).

The financing support for PH efforts in agricultural development, from my quick search, has IFAD with US$845 million, ADB with US$500 million, and World Bank with US$280 million (PRDP).

ADB:

The policy-based loan (PBL) is aligned with the Philippine Development Plan, 2017−2022 and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) country partnership strategy for the Philippines, 2018–2023, which emphasizes inclusive growth and local economic development. The Philippine Development Plan identified the agriculture sector as instrumental in reducing poverty, particularly in rural areas.

The World Bank says (09 Sept 2020, “Vibrant Agriculture is Key to Faster Recovery and Poverty Reduction,” World Bank, worldbank.org):

Several projects are in the pipeline to help raise agricultural productivity, resiliency and access to markets of farmers and fisherfolk in selected ancestral domains in Mindanao.

From the Department of Agriculture, the report is this: “Basically, around 5.5 million farmers and 5.6 million fishers are poor” in the Philippines (14 Jan 2021, “DA-SAAD’s Contribution To Philippine’s Poverty Reduction: An Analysis,” saad.da.gov.ph).

From reliefweb (reliefweb.int), the report is this: “Multiple indices rank the Philippines as one of the countries most affected by extreme climate events. The country has experienced highly destructive typhoons almost annually for the past 10 years. Annual losses from typhoons have been estimated at 1.2 percent of GDP.”

Nota bene:

ADB projects: “The agriculture sector as instrumental in reducing poverty, particularly in the rural areas.” IFAD projects: “Aim to improve access to markets, technology and rural financial services.” World Bank projects: “To raise agricultural productivity, resiliency and access to markets of farmers and fisherfolk.”

Sadly, I note that those billion-dollar projects do not address directly the poverty of millions of Filipino farmers! Necessarily, I must note that the ADB, IFAD and World Bank are not minding the Philippines continuing to practice Chemical Agriculture (CA) – which is continuing to generate greenhouse gases (GHGs) that generate Climate Change.

I wish ADB, IFAD and World Bank instead help solve the poverty of millions of our farmers by also funding ComDev projects encouraging Regenerative Agriculture and discontinuing prevailing methods of Chemical Agriculture – chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Regenerative projects will solve Farmer Poverty and simultaneously help resolve Climate Change! How? The total costs of farming will go down much, and the GHGs will disappear!@517
(“Dripping World” from google.com), “Sad State” from youtube.com)