Rianna Marie Velez

3BLM
RTL

A video of a farmer has spiraled along the internet and on social media where he was seen
aggrieved over a ton of cabbages. In his side he stated that the cabbages turned to fertilizers instead,
due to the influx of high cost of transporting the harvests from point to point. However, In the
world we live in this is not new to our farmers, they struggle almost each and every day of their
lives just to get things done. In this kind of industry in Agriculture most of them suffer from the
high costs of labors and transportation of harvests that does not equate to their capital. Mr. Samuel
Daniel was one of the farmers who experienced these struggles everyday, according to him he
posted that video at the time when cabbages were priced approximately P5 to P10 per kilo. This
situation to Daniel was something that he would lost his capital priced at P10,000. In the other
video he also explained why he had to cut up the cabbages instead of selling them in the La
Trinidad trading post. His statement was if he were to do so he will have to release almost half of
his capital and gather other farmers to help him harvest and likewise pay them their labor fee.

He appealed that the cost would be more than half already and the harvests are not yet being
transported at this point, he prays that the government to put up contingency plans in case these
kinds of issues occur. In today’s time with the recent ammendments of the law and the Department
of Agriculture announced that it was already doing and making arrangements in order to help these
struggling farmer, however it is still not enough not only the cabbage farmers but all the other
farmers bear the risk of losing their hard earned money.

According to the cabbage farmer, he appealed also for the Government to stabilize the price of
agricultural products, particularly cabbages and vegetables for a fixed price instead of weighing
the other prices alone. The subsidy that the Government imposes is not enough for them to gather
money for their families to eat it is not an answer to the existing problems in the agriculture sector
if the root cause is not properly studied.
Applying the amended Retail Trade Law, we will be expecting that numerous players will be
competing against these local farmers. Therefore, in order for them to still get their proper earning
the Government could implement a system wherein it will ensure them a assistance in stabilizing
the farmers due to the influx of prices. The law should correlate hand in hand with Agrarian Reform
that would be the aid to farmers’ problems and the provision under the Retail Trade Law which
pertains to preference of using Filipino Labor shall be strongly utilized and shall also extend to
these kinds of cases.