Learning from Israel's innovations, best practices in agriculture | The Final Word
Israel has emerged as a global leader in agriculture. How can the Philippines learn from the country?
Israeli agricultural expert Uri Yermiyahu shares his views.
Visit our website for more #NewsYouCanTrust: https://www.cnnphilippines.com/
Follow our social media pages:
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CNNPhilippines
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cnnphilippines/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/cnnphilippines
Israeli agricultural expert Uri Yermiyahu shares his views.
Visit our website for more #NewsYouCanTrust: https://www.cnnphilippines.com/
Follow our social media pages:
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CNNPhilippines
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cnnphilippines/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/cnnphilippines
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 Israel has emerged as a global leader in agriculture.
00:03 How can the Philippines learn from the country?
00:05 Israeli agricultural expert Uri Yermiyahu joins us now to share his views.
00:12 Welcome to Manila, Professor.
00:14 We really need your expertise from Israel to share with our hundreds of thousands of farmers
00:22 who are suffering in terms of prices, in terms of supply.
00:25 As you can see, we just had that report on hoarding rice and alleged imported rice.
00:30 What has made Israel successful in the agricultural industry?
00:35 Good evening.
00:36 The success, first, what is the success for Israel agriculture?
00:43 The success is to have high technology agriculture that are growing high quality of crops
00:53 in the desert using very low quality of water.
00:57 So taking the worst condition to grow crops and make it, this is our success.
01:05 How we did it?
01:07 Oh, this is a long story.
01:09 We don't have enough time.
01:10 Yes.
01:11 But in one word, it's ecosystem.
01:13 All right.
01:13 We build an ecosystem that farmers and private sector and public sectors
01:21 and collaboration, everything together, doing some kind of ecosystem that doing the success.
01:31 All stakeholders have to cooperate.
01:34 Yes.
01:34 Work as a team to be able to produce the right crops and enough crops,
01:41 enough grain, enough rice, enough fruits and vegetables for all people.
01:45 This is the beginning.
01:47 They need to cooperate in order to buy machine together, to buy the fertilizer and also to
01:55 take this yield over to the other places.
02:01 The cooperation is not just to grow.
02:04 It's the ecosystem to be together because one farmer cannot do it alone.
02:10 Yeah.
02:10 So I'm sure you have visited several government agencies.
02:14 This is just basically your first full day in Manila and you'll only be here for three days.
02:19 You visited the agricultural department and met with Undersecretary Panganiban.
02:24 What were some of his key questions that he was asking you on how to improve
02:29 agricultural productivity?
02:31 I think he would like to know how we did it.
02:36 So I actually talk about that exactly and we have more time to discuss about it
02:43 and to think how the government can help to the farmers and to understand what we are doing in
02:51 Israel that maybe you can adapt from us.
02:54 Just for example, I just saw what the tropical did to the farmers and they get lost everything
03:01 and they complain and it's right.
03:03 In Israel, you have insurance and by the insurance you get the start for the next year.
03:12 And I don't know if you have this.
03:13 We still don't have crop insurance here in the Philippines.
03:16 And of course, our farmers, many of them borrow money not from banks but from lenders in the
03:24 community which charge them high interest rates.
03:27 Their crops are destroyed due to our 20 plus typhoons every year, cannot pay their debts
03:34 and they're left with nothing.
03:36 So if you have a system that you have a small amount of insurance, this is help and give
03:42 him the ability to think about the next.
03:44 If without that, he's not going to take a chance.
03:46 And to be a farmer after two seasons like that, he's going to disappear.
03:52 Agricultural officials, you also spoke with the Bureau of Soils, you also spoke with UP
03:56 scientists.
03:58 From what you gather, is there really a collaboration of all stakeholders?
04:05 Is the Philippine government, the private sector and the academe working as one to be
04:09 able to help our farmers?
04:11 Well, I'm not sure.
04:13 I'm just two, three days.
04:14 What I can feel that your scientist is a very good scientist and also the people working
04:22 for the Department of Agriculture ask the right question.
04:26 They want to adopt the new technology that we are using, just for example, effluent,
04:30 treated wastewater.
04:32 So they have the right question how to use fertigation, how we are using water and
04:38 fertilizer at the same time.
04:40 So they ask the right question.
04:42 They know what to ask.
04:43 I don't know how they're working together, but they are in the business.
04:47 But what are your direct recommendations right now for the government, the private sector
04:53 and farmers to be able to improve our agricultural production?
05:01 It's to build the ecosystem and build ecosystem.
05:04 It's the time, but you need the partners and all the partners, the farmers, the private
05:10 sector and the other sectors.
05:12 And they need motivation to work together.
05:16 You cannot leave the farmers alone.
05:18 He cannot survive without the support.
05:22 This is the only thing I can say.
05:25 Taking a look at the Israeli experience, how high is the level of research and development
05:33 in the agricultural sector?
05:34 You grow basically fruits and vegetables and you export it.
05:40 How important is research and development?
05:43 Very important.
05:44 Without research and development, you are staying in the same place.
05:49 You need all the time to have research and our Ministry of Agriculture has a special
05:56 budget just for the agriculture and it's a big budget.
06:00 Okay.
06:00 When you say big budget, Professor, how many percent of annual GDP?
06:05 Well, this is something that's very hard to say.
06:09 All our budget for R&D is high, coming to be a few percentage.
06:15 How much is going to the agriculture?
06:17 I don't know exactly, but I know the amount.
06:20 But it's enough to push us as a researcher to have enough money and budget to run program.
06:27 In our system, I need to get the budget.
06:31 I need to compete for the budget.
06:32 I don't get it automatically.
06:34 I need to compete.
06:35 I need and this competition makes me much better, but it's enough budget to run project,
06:43 to push the agriculture.
06:45 And it's coming also from the private sector, from companies, so it's not just the public.
06:50 And all together, pushing the agriculture up and up and using new technologies.
06:56 And you know, Professor, I'm sure before your visit to the Philippines, the Philippines
07:02 was a rice producing nation.
07:06 We used to export rice to Vietnam, to Thailand.
07:14 And now we are importing from them.
07:17 And we have the International Rice Institute and the Department of Science and Technology,
07:22 which used to be hotbeds for education for agricultural students from overseas.
07:29 Do you think by building this ecosystem, we can return to our glory days?
07:34 Yes, I'm sure.
07:35 I'm really sure that doing the right things, you can go back to your power.
07:43 The industry of agriculture is very complicated.
07:46 It's not like the other industry.
07:49 But again, if you are building the right ecosystem with all these components, it's not one component.
07:57 It's all the components together.
07:59 I'm sure you can do it.
08:00 You have very good people here.
08:02 In the last two days that I've met these people, they know, they understand, they have the
08:08 vision, how to build it.
08:11 This is the way that you need to do it.
08:13 This is in your hands.
08:14 With you here, a professor, you'll be able to teach our farmers and agricultural experts
08:20 what to do next.
08:22 Israel, and I'm coming as a visitor of the Embassy of Israel, has promised to help the
08:31 Philippines to do the best.
08:32 And of course, we are going to do it.
08:34 Thank you so much for your insights.
08:36 Israeli agricultural expert, Professor Uri Yermiyahu.
08:40 Thank you very much.
08:41 Thank you very much.