Going Competitive

The Agricultural Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (ACEF) was created in 1996 to give farmers and fisherfolk, associations, cooperatives and agribusiness entrepreneurs a chance to compete in an extremely competitive and increasingly globalized agriculture market.

What makes ACEF special is that it makes financing available to small farmers and agri-aqua entrepreneurs, a lifeline that the regular credit and financial market does not provide. The ACEF is particularly special to me, because it was during my time as Secretary of Agriculture that ACEF was first implemented and operated, alongside the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act (AFMA).

The fund replaced quantitative import restrictions on agricultural products (except rice) with tariffs. Revenues collected from the tariff imposed on agricultural imports formed the ACEF. This fund was intended to improve the quality, efficiency and marketability of selected farm commodities. Our success in high-value vegetables, meat and fish products, among others, owes much to this special financing.

But the ACEF will expire at the end of this year. The law that created it, RA 8178, gave it only nine years to exist. The Senate is now discussing the extension of the ACEF's utilization period for another nine years, or until 2015, to coincide with the life of AFMA. Together, these two measures have given Filipino farmers a better fighting chance.

We live today in an open trade regime where quality products at competitive prices are required to sell in the market. The farming sector needs safety nets to cushion it from the impact of liberalized trade in the agriculture sector.