Industrialization is becoming a focus of considerable interest rapidly. Industrialization, driven by fundamental economic forces, seems likely to advance faster in the coming decade towards more segments of industry. Industrialization will also bring changes to public policy and agricultural institutions by changing the way agriculture does business. What has more recently given rise to industrialization at the core of the agricultural stage is an obvious acceleration in its growth and its new inroads into mid-western agriculture, industrial segments such as grains and pork which have long been regarded as important commodities produced on family farms.
Agriculture must be treated as an industry, with the aim of industrializing every agricultural commodity’s value chain. Although growing productivity is a major objective, it is equally important to generate more revenue by adding value, refining, manufacturing, and expanding markets for both raw and processed agricultural products. Relative to Philippine agriculture’s industrialization, it provides the basis for the digitization of farming and agri-business activities in the country where credit is made open, affordable and usable. Agriculture is undergoing a big transition – not just in technology and manufacturing activities, but also in company scale, resource (land) management and service, business model and relations with purchasers and suppliers.
Additionally, though laws were passed to modernize the agricultural sector of the country, progress was very slow. And given that the population of the country continues to rise and that agriculture faces even greater challenges from the effects of climate change, we should not waste time modernizing and industrializing the agricultural sector in the Philippines. Let me also note that the farmers in the country are getting very old, the average age being pegged at 57.
